My dirtiest job was a temporary one. I volunteered with a traveling tiger exhibit when they came to the Arkansas State Fair about 5 years ago. They only came around once. They asked us if my husband and I wanted to go with them because we were such good workers. Stupid me, I thought our meaningless jobs were important enough to stay for. I regret not going.

Our job description was:

Mixing up the formula for the young tigers (Mashed up turkey and canned milk and vitamins. Nice.

Cutting up whole chickens to feed to the baby lion.

Shoveling out all the old hay from the tiger trailor (loaded with feces and urine), spraying the whole trailer down with water, then pouring 3 or more gallons of bleach around, scrubing it up, and sprayng it down with water again before re-bedding the trailor with fresh hay

Herding the young tigers from the trailer into the cage every morning and back in every night (they may be only a few weeks old, but they're as big as german shepherds and as strong as a horse!)

Hanging onto the cats' leashes for photo sessions (I know, not so dirty.) There were other non-dirty jobs related to it, like folding up cardboard photo-holders for the customers, helping with informative speeches about the tigers regarding the unsafeness of having a wild animal like a tiger or another wild cat as a pet, the detrimental effects of barbaric proceedures such as declawing or defanging a large cat (because without their claws, their bones in their feet break down over time until they can't walk anymore!!) All of these cats were in complete condition.

Also, the adult male tigers would spray (anyone who owns a male housecat knows how cats will spray, well imagine a half-ton cat spraying. It's ... I don't even wanna talk about what it's like. *shudder*

When I'd put my hand flat-palmed up to the adult cats' mouths and noses they would rub up against it like a house-cat and make a weird sound like half way between a starting lawnmower and a horse making that "Ppppp" sound they make with their mouths, like blowing air through closed lips.

It was hard work, it was long hours, it was mess and smelly and all we had to drink was jugs of milk in a cooler (Yeah, in that weather like I'm going to drink milk that's been outside in melty ice. GROSS!) but it was the best job I had. It was very rewarding and I'd love to do it again, for the love of the animals!