Brenna recently took the Animal Training & Care course at Unity College with Dr. Kristyn Vitale.
"Before I started at Unity College, I was attending another college but that school wasn’t for me. Many times, my advisor at the previous school would say “oh we don’t have that class this semester, you already missed your chance to take it” or “this class is better for you” even if it was something I didn’t want to take. I was unhappy and not loving the subject matter or each class. For someone like me who wanted to work with exotics, I didn’t think I needed to know everything there was to know about farming and agriculture. I wanted to focus on the subject matter I am passionate about.
I work at the Dallas Zoo, and I travel 3 days a week to work with some amazing people and animals. I get to work with Elephants, Somali Wild Ass, Blue Duikers, Speke’s Gazelle, and Klipspringers. I’ve also gotten to work with Greater Kudu, Giraffe, Zebra (my favorite), Guinea Fowl, and Ostrich.
I am earning my Bachelor's in Animal Health and Behavior and I hope to learn as much about animals and the world as I can before I settle down and find out what I want to do as a career. I loved the class Animal Care and Training because it directly coincided with what I was doing at the Dallas Zoo. Watching behavior, taking care of animals, feeding, training, and disinfecting their space and areas. I am very aware of animal welfare, different behaviors, and enrichment, due to seeing it at work every day! I loved being able to write my own handbook for my own zoo (this was the course project) because I got to take all my experiences and training from Dallas and input it into my own imaginary zoo. I’m not sure where I’ll go in the future, but I know it will be spectacular, thanks to Unity!"
Original source can be found here
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