Careers in Animal Care

Former Pipers Corner pupils Emma Routledge (2006) and Alex Mozley (2009) came to speak to girls, parents and staff recently as part of the Pipers Corner Lecture Series.  Emma and Alex work at Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital as part of the team taking care of wildlife in the local area, rehabilitating animals and releasing them back into the wild.

Emma and Alex spoke about their choices at A Level and university and how this impacted on their career choices. 

After completing her A Levels, Emma spent the summer in South Africa on a wildlife research expedition spending five weeks tracking the “Big Five” and recording data on population distribution. Upon her return she attended Cardiff University studying Zoology. She then volunteered in Newquay, west Wales, for three months with the Sea Watch Foundation researching and studying Bottlenose Dolphins. From this she went on to study the diploma in Animal Care at Tiggywinkles and later became a full time member of staff as the outside team leader. 

When Alex left Pipers, she embarked on a Foundation Degree studying Science and Engineering at Queen Mary University. Half way through the course she decided that the course was not for her and after contacting Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital she started to study an NVQ in Animal Care, before training to be a veterinary nurse.  She now works at Tiggywinkles assisting in the hospital.

Although both girls took different routes to get where they are today, they each expressed to the audience that to work in animal care you need to have a passion for animals and be prepared to work hard. They also both agreed that the rewards are huge. To see rehabilitated animals be released back into their natural habitat it is one of the best experiences both Alex and Emma are involved in.

At the end of the talk we were delighted to be part of the release of two tawny owls in the Pipers grounds.  The owls had been injured and nursed back to health by Tiggywinkles and were ready to go back into their natural habitat.

For more information contact:

Rebecca Conroy, Senior Marketing Executive, Pipers Corner School. Telephone 01494 719850 or email [email protected] | www.facebook.com/PipersCornerSchool | @PipersCornerSch