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Jessica Lee Cornwell
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Animal Experience
As a kennel attendant at Lollypop Farm, I was responsible for cleaning, feeding, and monitoring the dogs at the shelter. Each day I worked either in the adoption suites with another kennel attendant or in the holding kennels alone. My morning was spent feeding the dogs, ensuring that all of the dogs receive a quick "potty break" outside, and cleaning the kennels before the shelter opens. Afterwards, I and the other kennel attendants would do chores such as washing dishes and crates, cleaning the outdoor canine play yards, restocking the kennel cleaning supplies, running the laundry machines, taking out the garbage, sorting and delivering donated items, and organizing storerooms. Each afternoon was spent feeding the dogs again, washing the dishes from the afternoon feeding, and ensuring that all of the dogs receive another potty break outside. In addition to being a kennel attendant, I was also the Dog Walker Team Lead. I act as a supervisor for the volunteer dog walkers that work at Lollypop Farm. My duties included keeping volunteers informed about dog-related shelter events and policies, assisting in new volunteer training, writing and revising the Standard Operating Procedure for dog walking, keeping the dog walker room stocked with necessary supplies, providing support to the volunteers, and acting as a laison between the volunteers and other shelter staff.
As an educator at the Maritime Aquarium, I worked in three different environments: in classrooms, on the beach, or in the aquarium itself. Most often I would teach educational programs about marine animals or conservation in a classroom. The programs frequently involved presenting live crabs or mollusks for the audience to interact with. The programs were offered both in the aquarium's classrooms and also as travel programs at schools, camps, or other organizations. Live animals were transported in aerated coolers filled with chilled sea water. During the warmer months I also taught classes at a nearby beach. These programs often involved very large school groups and were taught by multiple educators working together. For the first part of the program, each educator would lead a specific station in a different area of the beach (wrack line, tidal marsh, mudflat, rocky beach). The stations highlight the ecosystems found in each area of the beach. In the second part of the program, the eduators work together to demonstrate how to test seawater composition and run a collection net for students to census the coastal marine animals. Finally, I also ran tours for school fieldtrips or other large visitor groups. These tours were often customized to tie in with classroom programs or to meet school requests.
I worked as a vertinary technician at the Bethel Village Square Animal Hospital. Although I was not a certified technician, I did many of the same tasks as the other technicians. I assisted in all stages of a patient's visit. Before the veterinarian examined the animal I would weigh animals, prepare vaccines, and draw blood as necessary. Then I would restrain the animal while the veterinarian examined the animal and administered vaccines or medication. If x-rays were necessary, I would assist in preparing the film, positioning and restraining the animal on the table, and developing the film. After the exam I was responsible for processing any urine, fecal, or blood samples that were being sent to another lab. I would also perform basic laboratory tests such as lyme snaps and prepare any medications prescribed by the veterinarian. Outside of patient visits, I was also responsible for housekeeping activities such as keeping the exam rooms, waiting area, and lab areas clean and stocked, doing laundry, and washing equipment.
The Whole Earth Home School camp held at Great Hollow was an all-day summer camp specifically designed for home-schooled children with a focus on nature and outdoor activities. I and another camp instructor would lead a small group of children on hikes and each teach a lesson or supervise a craft project along the way. Lessons and projects that I taught focused mainly on tree, insect, and animal identification. Other daily activities with the children usually included building a small camp fire during lunch, playing group games, tending the community vegetable garden, and wading in the many rivers that ran through the Great Hollow property.
During the final summer that I worked at the Beardsely Zoo, I assisted with a daily educational presentation that focused on teaching visitors about endangered breeds of farm animals and also about the roles that different animals play on a farm. Mornings began with cleaning the exhibits of two Cotswold sheep, a broad-winged hawk, three domestic ducks (which were later replaced by two leghorn chickens), and three domestic rats. Myself and another trainer then worked on halter training the sheep and a pair of San Clemente goats, the rats to run along a fence that enclosed the show stage, one of the chickens to run from the center of the audience through a trap door in the stage backdrop, the broadwing hawk to sit calmly on glove, and the zoo's male Guinea hog to walk around the stage following a "trail" of feeding spots. Next we would then prepare diets to feed out in the afternoon and the following morning. Finally, we would assist in the presentation itself. Through the course of the show, myself and the other trainer would essentially take turns leading or carrying the various animals out on stage in a specific order, while one of the zoo educators discussed the animals with the audience. The first half of the presentation focused on domestic farm animals. First out would be the chickens. One trainer would discretely walk to the middle of the audience with a chicken in a carrier, and release it on cue. The chicken would run through a trapdoor where the other trainer would secure it. Then the first trainer would carry out a second chicken in their hands. The second trainer would then bring out one of the sheep on halter and walk it around the inner perimeter of the audience. The first trainer would then bring out of the goats out to a small platform on stage. The second trainer would then wait behind stage with the Guinea hog and accompany him out on the stage on cue. The second half of the show focused on other wild animals that may be found living on or near a farm. One trainer would either carry out the trio of rats or allow them to run along the fence that circled the stage. The other trainer would then carry out one of the snakes from the zoo's education department. Finally, the first trainer would bring out the broad-winged hawk or a screech owl from the education department on jesses and glove. After the show was over, both of us would each lead out a sheep for audience members to pet. On some days when the show was not scheduled to be held, I would hold smaller presentations with just one or two farm animals in the zoo farmyard alone. There were also other farm-related performances by outside companies being hosted at the zoo throughout the summer, for which I was expected to bring the sheep out at the end of each show to collect donations. After the afternoon presentations were over, I usually spent the rest of the day performing maintenance tasks such as clearing out bittersweet and poison ivy that was growing too close to the show animals' holding pens, fixing the animal's carriers, and rennovating the education department's outdoor small animal play yard. I would also feed the animals a second time and do additional training with the rats.
During the second summer that I interned at the Bearsley Zoo I was in the predator department.Each zoo keeper department is based on a specific physical area of the zoo. Thus, in addition to actual carnivours species such as the Amur tigers, the predator department also cares for herbivours like the white-tailed deer because those animals happen to be exhibited nearby. At the time of my internship, the predator department included two American crocodiles, two river otters, two spectacled bears, two Canadian lynx, three Amur tigers, the wetlands aviary, two white-tailed deer, and a red fox. As a predator department intern, I was expected to perform many of the same tasks that the zoo keepers themselves would perform. The first task of each morning was to hose and scrub down the decking and trees of the wetlands aviary and put out fresh food for the birds. The aviary was home to a pond of red-eared slider turtles, several different duck species, as well as a cattle egret and a pair of black-crowned night-herons. Next I would move on to the red fox. The fox would be shut into its outdoor exhibit area, and I would hose down, disinfect, and rinse the concrete holding area. I would then clean up the outdoor exhibit area. Usually the last exhibit I would clean would be the white-tailed deer yard. Occassionally I was asked to also hose down, disinfect, and rinse the concrete holding area for the otters as well. For the rest of the morning, I would work on various maintenance tasks such as repainting the concrete holding areas for the lynx, repainting the fencing for the spectacled bear, and draining and cleaning the aviary turtle pond. Other tasks that I occasionally assisted with that summer were capturing and weighing the turtles and aviary birds as part of their health checks, training the otters, and observing the crocodile feedings. The last task of the morning was usually spent preparing diets for all of the predator department animals for that afternoon and the following morning. Diets included very specific amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh greens, herring and other fish, feline diet logs, bird of prey diet logs, and raw chicken. Some animals also received vitamins or medicines in their food. In the afternoons I would help deliver the afternoon diets and enrichment items to most of the predator department animals, and then assist in cleaning the exhibit yards for the spectacled bears after they had been brought into their holding area for the night.
During the first summer that I interned at the Beardsley Zoo I was in the education department. The education department cares for a wide variety of small mammals, reptiles, and some insects that are routinely taken to classrooms in the zoo or out to school classrooms for education programs. Each morning I either provided care for the animals in the small mammals room or the reptile room. The small mammals room was home to several ferrets, rabbits, and chinchillas, as well as a screech owl, elderly brown bat, two African hedgehogs, a spotted salamander and emperor scorpians. The reptile room was home to an iguana, a few species of tortoise, three white-tailed doves, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and several different species of snake. Other education department animals, which resided in the "Professor Beardsley's Research Station" included a blue-and-gold Macaw, a yellow-naped Amazon parrot, and a few larger snakes. For the first half of the summer, all of the animals from the reptile room were also being kept at the research station while the reptile room underwent rennovation. On days when I was caring for the animals in the small mammal room, the first duty was to feed all of the animals and provide fresh water. Then I would clean each cage and provide certain animals with floor exercise. On the days I was caring for the animals in the reptile room, I would feed all of the animals aside from the snakes (who were only fed on certain days by staff members). I would then clean the snake, tortoise, iguana and white-tailed dove cages and provide floor exercise for the tortoises. The rest of the morning would be spent assisting with the summer camps held at the zoo or observing, and then later assisting, with educational classes. Other tasks included organizing the small mammal room storage closet, organizing the craft storage areas in the research center, setting up tables and chairs in the zoo classrooms, and learning about animal handling from the educators. My final duty for the morning was to prepare diets for all of the education department animals for that afternoon and the following morning. Diets were weighed out on scales and usually consisted of either fresh fruits and vegetables, live crickets or meal worms, or frozen rats. The afternoon was spent delivering the afternoon diets and enrichment items to the education department animals and providing additional floor exercise. Any remaining time was used for assisting in additional education programs or performing more maintenance tasks such as cleaning and organizing the research center.
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