Process

    Danny Creelman
    Mrs. Dunsten Hoover
    AP Language
    19th September 2019

I have volunteered for the Cincinnati Zoo for the past four years. This past summer, I was given the ability to take animals out on encounters throughout the zoo. While the animals were relatively simple to handle and were rather small, the process of taking one out into the zoo was much more complicated than one might think. 
Before being allowed to handle animals, I had to go through multiple trainings. I was trained on how to hold the animal and how to take it in and out of its enclosure. Finally, I could  start to take the animal out into the zoo and interact with guests. 
Sanitation is always the first step when it comes to handling an animal: no matter if it is a small snake or a large falcon. After I entered the animal holding, I would step into a small foot bath next to the door to prevent any bacteria or diseases from being carried into the holding area. I would also go and wash my hands, which was another form of preventing the spread of diseases in animal holding. 
After I washed my hands, my coworker and I would look through our online system to see what animals were available to handle. This online system shows what animals are gone for what parts of the day. If the animal is signed out there, we can’t take it out. Additionally, an animal can not be signed out more than three times a day, and it has to have at least a one hour break after it is handled before it can be taken out again. These necessary rules were often extremely limiting. After we found an animal that was available, we would check to see when it was taken out last in a paper binder. This binder has more specific times in it, so we could see if it had been given a full hour break. If the animal was available in both the paper and online system, we could take it out. 
Taking the animal out was, surprisingly, the least complicated part of the process. We would pick up a cooler (Coolers can help regulate the air temperature for the animal while it is being transported, making it more comfortable), put the animal in the cooler, and strap it shut (to keep the lid from falling off, or to keep a curious snake from poking its head out). Now we could leave animal holding, but not before remembering to step in the footbath on our way out. 
While taking an animal out to handle might initially sound simple, the process is actually rather long and complicated, with many steps that are easy to forget or mess up. However, it is always worth it to give guests a new and exciting experience that they will never forget.

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