Kathleen McElderry

Katie's love of animals originally brought her to the spcaLA as a volunteer while finishing her senior year in high school. Her time here fueled her passion for training and learning about animal behavior.

Katie's training and animal husbandry experience includes working with horses, dogs, cats, pigs, birds (hawks, parrots, falcons and pigeons), reptiles, raccoons and a young orangutan. Katie gained her animal training experience while working with the Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center from there she moved onto Universal Studios Hollywood's [former] Animal Planet Live ! Her quest for more animal handling and caretaking experience motivated her to accept a position as the Assistant Curator at Rainforest Café. Here she trained parrots and performed in daily bird shows in front of large audiences. She also conducted educational tours for groups of children and taught them about the rainforest, animals and conservation. Her position at Rainforest café gave Katie the opportunity to make daily tank dives to feed the sharks and other various aquarium residents.

Prior to taking the position with spcaLA Katie worked as a falconer with Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament. While maintaining a busy work and school schedule Katie has spent the last three years volunteering for an all-breed dog rescue as a trainer, and assisting with behavior assessments. Through this organization, Katie adopted her best buddy, Cash, an Irish wolfhound mix who was tossed into a dumpster and abandoned. Katie invested her love and care to help shape a timid puppy into a strong, healthy and confident dog.

Katie is excited to be a part of the Behavior and Training department for the spcaLA and to use her experience with different animals and work with the public to help her find new and entertaining ways to enhance the time the animals spend in the shelter. It made sense to return to the place that she began her career as an animal trainer.