Behind the Lens

Film Career · Transportation / Livestock

Animal Wrangler

Transportation / Livestock · Teamsters (wranglers and trainers)

Union
Teamsters
Day rate
~$300–$450/day
Experience
Entry level
View in the set org chart

What does an Animal Wrangler do?

Animal wranglers supply, train, and handle every animal that appears on camera, from a housecat to a herd of horses. They plan how a behavior will be captured, manage animal welfare rules, and coordinate with the AD team on limited working hours. Livestock haulers and wranglers fall under Teamster jurisdiction in most markets.

What does an Animal Wrangler make?

  • Union scale about $27-$36 an hour (roughly $300-$450 a day); non-union flat around $500 a full day; head trainers and exotic-animal wranglers bill $600-$1,000+.
  • Roughly $45K-$120K+ a year, highly project to project.
  • A lead trainer supplying trained hero animals earns a premium plus animal rental.

Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.

Sources & how we estimate pay

Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:

On the job

  • Train and rehearse animals for the specific behaviors a scene requires
  • Handle animals on set, reading stress and pulling them before problems start
  • Manage welfare compliance, including working-hour limits and monitoring requirements
  • Transport and house animals, coordinating logistics with the transportation department

You’ll like and be good at this job if:

Hard skills

  • You have real animal training and handling credentials
  • You know animal-welfare rules and working-hour limits

Soft skills

  • You read animals better than most people read people
  • You are patient, unflappable, and put animal welfare first

Career progression

Wranglers usually start in the animal world rather than the film world: ranch work, veterinary support, professional training kennels, or stables. From there the progression is assistant wrangler on set, then wrangler, then head wrangler or trainer running an animal company that supplies productions.

How do you become an Animal Wrangler?

Build real animal handling credentials first, then contact the animal action companies that supply film work; most hiring flows through them rather than productions directly. In Teamster markets, wrangler work runs through the local, so get to know the transportation coordinator on any show you touch.

On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by Teamsters (wranglers and trainers) contracts.

Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.

For productions

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