Zoos aren't the only jobs/careers for 'working with animals'. My son has his degree in Wildlife Management and is a Certified (by the National Wildlife Society) Wildlife Biologist. He is scouting for a school for his Masters now and currently works at the Jones Center/Ichaway Research Center in GA. His main focus is Gopher tortoise research but he works with everything he comes across in the field (just found his first Indigo!).
He has worked for many places (grant work usually) and has done work with bats, loons, salamanders etc. all up and down the coast.
He's gone all over and wrangled/researched all sorts of cool critters. He is having the time of his life, getting paid for it, working in his chosen field and just loving it!
I rambled, sorry, was just pointing out that there are all sorts of options.
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