Lab animal opportunities

[Namissbaltimore]

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Hello... I know some people may look for how to gain lab animal research opportunities and figured I could lend a possible hand. I am also working my way towards veterinary school and I currently work as a facility manager in Lab animal research. I have a few open positions on my contract and if people are interested in gaining some experience its a good way to get an idea of how the field is. I work in Rockville, Maryland, but our company has positions all over the place. Just look up Charles River Laboratories

 

[acshriv]

Hi there! What is your experience with Charles river Laboratories? What are the animal related jobs and what do these job entail?

 

[Namissbaltimore]

Hi there! What is your experience with Charles river Laboratories? What are the animal related jobs and what do these job entail?

I currently work for Charles river and love the company. Many growth opportunities and detailed on trainings. There are many animal related jobs. From cleaning the cages and prepping them for a variety of species. Caretaking: monitoring animal health, environment and enrichment. Veterinary technician: collecting health assessments and providing information to veterinarians to ensure proper treatment is provided.

I have also worked with other companies and I am currently a facility manager. I provide training, ensure protocols are properly followed, fill in for other positions when needed, budgets, assist scientists with data collection and navigating ways to ensure animal health is a priority.

 

[battie]

To be clear, these are not opportunities for pre-vet students to participate in research to work toward a publication?

Therefore, the hours spent in these positions would go towards animal or potentially veterinary experience hours, not research experience hours?

 

[Namissbaltimore]

To be clear, these are not opportunities for pre-vet students to participate in research to work toward a publication?

Therefore, the hours spent in these positions would go towards animal or potentially veterinary experience hours, not research experience hours?

It depends, there are positions also as RSS (Research support specialist) which allow you to work directly in a scientists lab and still work with animals. In that position you are included in publications. The positions I listed above allow people to get an idea of how lab animal fields work and you do meet a ton of scientists and veterinarians.
I personally am working with a few scientists on research projects that I have meet through this field. These also lead to publications for me.

Im realizing I need to change the title of this post. I don't want to confuse anyone in regards to what experience you would be gaining and where it would be referenced on the VMCAS.

 

[KCgophervet]

In case any current vet students are interested, ASLAP is doing a career panel on lab animal medicine in April!

 

[ukrainiandude]

Charles river

Bumping up the old thread.
Would you consider CRL as your future career? Thanks

 

[that redhead]

Bumping up the old thread.
Would you consider CRL as your future career? Thanks

If you or anyone else wants to know about CRL, PM me 🙂

 

[GuinBobin]

To be clear, these are not opportunities for pre-vet students to participate in research to work toward a publication?

Therefore, the hours spent in these positions would go towards animal or potentially veterinary experience hours, not research experience hours?

I worked as an animal care tech in a research lab..on the application it states anything having to do with research should be listed as a research experience (which is where i put mine). you don’t have to publish for an experience to be listed as research. I was accepted this cycle as well.

 

[battie]

I worked as an animal care tech in a research lab..on the application it states anything having to do with research should be listed as a research experience (which is where i put mine). you don’t have to publish for an experience to be listed as research. I was accepted this cycle as well.

Never said you need to be published. When I applied to vet school and was accepted, animal caretaker experience was separated from research experience because the animal caretaker may have nothing to do with the actual research taking place. That has apparently changed based on your experience.

 

[supershorty]

I don't think caring for research animals counts as research experience. If you weren't conducting research and the scientific process, you shouldn't be counting those hours for research.

It might have slid past on that application, but that's not research experience IMO.

 

[honeypot999]

Now if you were dosing animals, taking research data and such that would IMO be considered part of research. But if you’re just changing bedding and cleaning cages then no.

 

[GuinBobin]

Alright, just sharing what I did for my app. I had trouble placing my experience because we work very closely with the veterinary staff and research team…when looking at this experience chart on VMCAS, I felt that my experience was research related and so that’s what I chose. 🤷🏽‍♀️

 

[supershorty]

Yeah, I hate that chart for this reason. Because the reality is that doing animal husbandry, even if it is for research animals, is not **doing research**. When I'm evaluating someone's research experience, I expect it to be a much more active process than health checks/changing bedding/etc. - they need to be actually contributing to the scientific process; the hypotheses, the experiment design, the data collection - not just taking care of the animals.

I'm not saying that what you did is wrong because VMCAS' own chart is super misleading, IMO, but "research experience" is more than animal husbandry.

 

[ukrainiandude]

If you or anyone else wants to know about CRL, PM me 🙂

PMed you.

 

[that redhead]

If anyone is interested in a clinical vet position, PM me 🙂