Part-Time Adoption & Retail Specialist
D’Arcy’s Animal Rescue Centre is looking for a friendly, confident, animal loving person to join our team as a Part-Time Adoption & Retail Specialist.
This is a people facing role for someone who genuinely enjoys talking to people, making connections, and helping customers find the right products and, hopefully, helping them find the right animal to add to their family.
You’ll be one of the welcoming faces of D’Arcy’s, helping visitors feel comfortable in our shelter, assisting customers on our retail floor, and, most importantly, helping our adoptable animals find loving, forever homes.
If you love animals, are comfortable speaking with all kinds of people, and have a natural sales and customer service attitude, we’d love to hear from you.
What you’ll do
- Welcome customers and provide friendly, knowledgeable customer service to everyone who comes through our doors.
- Work on the retail floor, helping customers find products that are right for them and their pets.
- Learn our retail products and confidently make recommendations based on customers’ needs.
- Process retail sales, restock merchandise, maintain displays, and keep the retail area clean, organized, and inviting.
- Talk with potential adopters, answer questions, and help them understand the adoption process.
- Spend time getting to know our adoptable animals so you can confidently speak about their personalities, needs, and ideal homes.
- Help match animals with families and individuals who are the right fit for them.
- Conduct adoption meetings and assist with the adoption process while following policies and procedures.
- Help create positive experiences for adopters, customers, volunteers, and visitors.
- Safely interact with and handle cats and dogs in our care.
- Help promote our adoptable animals and encourage visitors to consider adoption.
- Comfortable asking clients for donations to help secure funding for our shelter.
- Keep animal areas, retail areas, and common spaces clean, organized, and welcoming.
- Attend community events, trade shows, adoption events, and other outside activations as a representative of D’Arcy’s, helping promote our shelter, adoptable animals, adoption programs, fundraising initiatives and retail offerings while engaging with the public and building positive community connections.
What you bring
- A genuine love for animals and a passion for helping shelter animals find their forever homes.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
- Confidence speaking with a wide variety of people, including potential adopters and retail customers.
- A friendly, outgoing personality and the ability to make people feel welcome.
- Strong customer-service skills and a positive, can-do attitude.
- The ability to listen to people and ask thoughtful questions to understand what they’re looking for.
- Comfort having conversations about adoption and helping people determine whether an animal is the right fit for their lifestyle.
- Comfort handling cats and dogs, including animals you may not have met before.
- Reliability, responsibility, and the ability to work independently when needed.
- The ability to stay calm and flexible in a busy shelter environment where priorities can change quickly.
- Previous retail, sales, customer service, animal care, shelter, or veterinary experience is an asset, but a great attitude and willingness to learn are just as important.
Hours
This is a part-time position of approximately 15–20 hours per week.
Because our shelter serves the public outside of traditional business hours, evening and weekend availability is required.
Scheduling will include a combination of weekday evening and weekend shifts.
What’s in it for you?
You’ll get to come to work every day knowing that what you do directly helps animals in need.
You’ll have the opportunity to work closely with cats and dogs, meet amazing people, help families find their perfect companion, and be part of a team that is passionate about animal rescue in Manitoba.
Most importantly, you’ll play a real role in helping our animals move from shelter life to forever homes.
To apply
Please send your cover letter and resume to Adam Kozachuk, Operations Manager, at community@darcysarc.ca. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, September 2, 2026.
In your cover letter, tell us a little about yourself, why you want to work with D’Arcy’s, and what makes you a great fit for a role that combines animals, people, adoption, and retail.