What an Animal Enthusiast Does, and Why They Do It.

An animal enthusiast dedicates their lives to animals. They volunteer at shelters, study animal courses and seek careers involving animals.

They choose vacation spots based on animal activity there, and spend much of their finances on animals. Every decision made involves considering their animals.

Animal enthusiasts love animals of all types. Very rarely is there an animal they don’t like because it’s about something bigger than individual animals.

For an animal enthusiast, it’s about nature, all creatures great and small, the order of nature, and treating all animals with love and respect. All animals are equal to an enthusiast. All animals deserve protection and love.

An animal enthusiast lives and plans around animals;they seekexperiences with animals and lovegaining knowledge about them. They will usually have their animals with them all the time and are very rarely seen without them.

They have an affinity with animals and often make them the purpose of their lives.

Animal Enthusiasts Plan Travel Around Animals

What better way to get their ‘animal fix’ than planning a trip or holiday around animal related activity?

For an animal enthusiast planning a holiday or trip, they know basing their plans around animals is what will make the trip worthwhile.

Animals are everywhere: No matter where an animal enthusiast goes, there are animals in all areas. Many countries allow animals to roam, instead of the western methods of containment and control.

Some countries have animals roaming through city streets and traffic. Many have animal attractions not available in the enthusiast’s home country. This is how an animal enthusiast plans their vacation.

New and exciting animals: Not only are there animals the enthusiast wouldn’t normally encounter, they are often accessible to them up close and in the enclosure. A lot of countries don’t have the strict health and safety rules of western countries, and they allow experiences with animals not normally allowed.

Another scenario is the animals they wish to experience come from a completely different environment, so travel may be the only way for an up-close-and-personal experience.

Exciting Opportunities: Volunteering at an African elephant sanctuary or an orangutan hospital in Indonesia are opportunities the animal enthusiast would happily travel for and spend their vacation money doing.

Animal Enthusiasts Seek Jobs With Animals

Many animal enthusiasts will tailor their education to getting a career involving animals. For those who become enthusiasts later in life, they often make changes to their jobs to cater to their new-found passion.

Some of the most common and well paid jobs include:

Veterinarian
Conservation Land Manager
Wildlife Biologist
Animal Nutritionist
Marine Biologist
Pet Sitter
Pet Groomer

Many animal enthusiasts maintain non-animal careers, but you will often find them volunteering in their spare time and vacation time. You will see them collecting during charity drives, walking dogs from shelters, and every job in between.

Animal Enthusiasts Change Lifestyles for Animals

There are many ways animal enthusiasts express their love, devotion, and dedication toward animals.

Animal enthusiasts adopt animals in need: Although all of us animal lovers are dedicated to our pets, many enthusiasts will adopt troubled animals, or those with behavior problems and difficult conditions to treat. They know it will take many hours of dedicated training, but they happily do it anyway.

They believe all animals deserve a chance. They will do anything to offer those chances.

Animal enthusiasts live animal-friendly lifestyles: Although many animal enthusiasts become vegetarians and vegans, it is perfectly acceptable to be an animal enthusiast and eat meat. In fact, many hunters are animal enthusiasts and believe in the necessity to maintain acceptable animal numbers for animal health and welfare.

Many animal enthusiasts will only buy cruelty-free animal products to ensure that the meat they eat comes from animals that have been treated respectfully and with kindness.

There are many variations of animal enthusiasts with different belief systems.

Animal enthusiasts only wear non-animal clothing: Clothing that is made of leather or fur is often ignored by animal enthusiasts. They gravitate to plant-based materials such as cotton and hemp.

Animal enthusiasts boycott the exotic pet trade: Despite loving all animals and relishing time spent with them, animal enthusiasts who believe in the welfare of all animals will boycott the exotic pet trade out of principle.

They’re not interested in animals that should be left in the wild, or wild animals bred specifically for pet ownership. They know the value of keeping only domesticated species, and leaving the rest in their natural habitats.

People who are involved in illegal trade in exotic animals are not animal enthusiasts.

Animal Enthusiasts Make Their Life About Animals

Not sure if you are an enthusiast or owner? Let’s look at the difference.

Animal owners look after their pets and enjoy animals in general. We give to animal charities when we can, and we look after our animals well. We feed them, house them, keep them warm, and make their lives as nice as possible.

We have varied interests outside of our pets and animals and may just be involved in our pets and no other animals, but we love them dearly.

An animal enthusiast will do all of the above and a lot more. Their entire lives revolve around animals.

They own animals that require a lot of work and rehabilitation. They don’t mind dedicating their time and houses to the care of animals, and often work jobs to pay for their animal related activities.

Animal enthusiasts do courses, spend weekends and evenings volunteering for animal causes, and often help friends, families, and neighbors with their animals.

They Spend A Lot on Animal Related Products

All animal owners spend a lot on our pets and sometimes donate to charities. We recognize that owning an animal comes with financial responsibilities.

Animal enthusiasts love to buy animal-themed products to show their love of an all-things animal.

From facemasks for people to socks for newborns, and everything in between, an animal enthusiast spends their money. People who know animal enthusiasts know that they are likely to receive gifts revolving around animals.

Animal enthusiasts also like to be with like-minded people. Of course, they don’t avoid people, but there are several dating sites specifically for animal lovers and animal enthusiasts.

Animal enthusiasts often end up with other enthusiasts because they need someone who understands their way of life and won’tmind the animal-centric lifestyle.

It’s much easier to be with people who understand you and your dedication to animals.

Animal Enthusiasts Love Nature

Saying animal enthusiasts love nature doesn’t mean that they love to hike in the wild or live off-grid in the forest. Studies have shown that an affinity with animals is genetic in some humans.

As we developed as humans, we started bonding with animals for protection, comfort, and company. The studies suggest that many of our distant relations survived thanks to their ‘instinctive rapport’ with animals.

Given we pass traits on to our offspring; it makes sense that we pass on our love for animals and the desire to do everything we can for them. Some people feel it deeply, while others a little bit, or not at all.

Interestingly, it’s not always from our immediate family members like parents, but deeper into our genetic history. An animal enthusiast may have parents who dislike animals or don’t care one way or the other.

They can develop their own love and dedication to animals as they develop as a person.

Bottom Line on Animal Enthusiasts

The main way to identify an animal enthusiast is by seeing how animal activities dominate their lives. If they’re not studying various animal topics, animal enthusiasts are teaching subjects involving animals, volunteering to help animals, traveling to vacation spots based on animal activity, or getting involved in fundraising.

A huge portion of their finances are dedicated to animals, whether that be their own, or other people’s animals.

Animal enthusiasts will book holiday accommodation only if they can take their pet with them. You will rarely see and animal enthusiast without their pet, or some form of pet merchandise.

Whether we are an enthusiast or animal lover, we all do our bit to make animals a part of our lives, just like our ancestors thousands of years ago.

We are contributing to the animal and human experience for future generations.

I’ll leave you with the immortal words of renowned Australian animal enthusiast, the late Steve Irwin.

“I have no fear of losing my life – if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it.”

Writer: Craig Taylor