Animal Care Associate (EG)

About the role

As an Animal Care Associate for our GEMS Breed Group in Wilmington, MA, the GEMS Animal Care Associate will learn how and continue to maintain and monitor the health, production, and physical environment of client or Charles River Laboratories (CRL) animals housed at CRL facilities. These environments may include isolators or individual ventilated cages (IVC).

Responsibilities

• Perform entry-level husbandry tasks, including supplying food, bedding, water and environmental enrichment.
• Maintain rat and mouse colonies, including setting up matings, weaning and sexing of offspring, genetic sampling of animals.
• Handle rodents (mice and rats), including restraining of animals for collection of fecal pellets, ear/tail sampling as well as tagging animals for identification.
• Observe animals for any abnormalities or common health issues.
• Identify and select specific animals for customer shipments, genotyping, health monitoring, matings, transfers or other various tasks as needed.
• Learn, understand, and comply with all Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with direct supervision and instruction for most processes/tasks.
• Learn and strictly follow all animal welfare standards and biosecurity procedures necessary to maintain isolator integrity and animal health status, including the proper sterilization and entry of supplies/animals into isolators.
• Be detailed-oriented and enter accurate data entry into Internet Colony Management (ICM).
• Ensure compliance with all local, state and federal laws governing the use of research animals.
• Able to prioritize and execute daily tasks with guidance from supervisor(s).
• Perform general housekeeping and adhere to EHS, safety, and ergonomic procedures.
• General computer skills and ability to quickly learn required computer programs, databases and other applications (i.e. ICM and Microsoft Office).
• Be able to learn to identify issues and communicate to management and learn the importance of our CRL DNA and core values.
• Perform all other related duties as assigned.

Role Specific Information

• Location: Wilmington, MA
• Schedule: Monday – Friday – early shifts, no weekends required.

Minimum Qualifications

• Experience: Entry-level, no previous experience required.
• Sufficient computer knowledge to use a tablet computer and communicate using Microsoft Applications.
• The ability to develop knowledge of, respect for, and skills to engage with those of other cultures or backgrounds.
• The ability to communicate clearly and effectively.

Prior to Employment

• Ability to pass a pre-employment drug screen and criminal background check.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Charles River is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, family status, pregnancy, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.