Salary
Average Salary: $34,370
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $1,434,879
The average yearly salary for an animal control worker is just over $34,000 a year, or $16.52 an hour (source). Not exactly pet spa money.
Of course, location has a lot to do with how much money you'll make. The average Californian animal control officer makes $46,000 a year, while the average West Virginian makes only $22,000 a year. However, when you consider that it's twice as expensive to live in California as it is to live in West Virginia, you realize that California's not actually that much of a bargain. Alaskan animal control officers also make just under $46,000, and Alaska is cheap to live in compared to California—but California doesn't have wolves and polar bears. It's all relative.