Pre-Veterinary Internship

About the Opportunity

Chase Sanctuary & Wildlife Conservancy is offering a Pre-Veterinary Internship designed for students seeking experience in animal care, wildlife health, and veterinary exposure within a sanctuary setting.

This is a hands-on, husbandry-focused internship where interns spend the majority of their time working directly with animals through daily care and operations, while also gaining occasional exposure to veterinary-related situations when they arise. Interns additionally contribute to social media content focused on animal health, education, and behind-the-scenes sanctuary operations.

We care for 240+ animals across 70+ species — critically endangered primates such as ruffed lemurs and cotton-top tamarins, xenarthrans including sloths, anteaters and tamanduas, plus birds, reptiles, and hoofstock. That range provides exposure to real-world animal care scenarios not typically seen in traditional veterinary clinics.

The internship is designed to build a strong foundation in animal care and husbandry, provide realistic exposure to veterinary care rather than daily clinical work, and strengthen veterinary school applications through well-rounded experience.

Core Responsibilities

Animal care & husbandry — primary focus

• Assist with daily feeding, cleaning, and enclosure maintenance
• Prepare species-specific diets
• Support enrichment activities and behavioral observation
• Maintain cleanliness and organization of animal areas

Interns spend the majority of their time in this area, learning how daily care impacts animal health, how nutrition, environment, and behavior connect to medical outcomes, and how sanctuary operations function at a professional level.

Veterinary exposure — situational and educational

• Shadow and learn from vet techs when treatments or medical situations occur
• Observe injury treatment and illness response, medication administration, and health monitoring practices
• Learn to recognize signs of illness or distress, behavioral changes, and general health indicators

Important: this is not a clinical internship. Veterinary involvement is occasional and dependent on active cases, but interns gain valuable insight into how medical care integrates with daily husbandry.

Social media content creation

Interns help create educational content focused on animal care and welfare, behind-the-scenes sanctuary operations, "day in the life" of animal care and vet tech work, and species education covering anatomy, behavior, and conservation. Responsibilities include content ideation and planning, filming on site, editing short-form video, and posting support and engagement.

Veterinary & education event support

Interns assist with veterinary-related workshops and educational events — helping coordinate the event, assisting with logistics and execution, and capturing content. An upcoming example is a workshop with Dr. Karen Sandi covering wildlife darting techniques and xenarthran care.

Ideal Candidate

• Pre-veterinary, animal science, biology, or a related major
• Comfortable with hands-on animal care and physical work
• Strong interest in veterinary medicine and exotic species
• Interest in social media or education preferred
• Reliable, proactive, and willing to learn

This internship is designed for students who want a realistic, well-rounded pre-vet experience — not just shadowing, but understanding how animal health is managed daily.