If you use C3PO you can make it do it when it checks the connection out.

As properties:

c3p0.preferredTestQuery=alter session set current_schema=animals
c3p0.testConnectionOnCheckout=true

As Java code:

ComboPooledDataSource dataSource = new ComboPooledDataSource();
dataSource.setPreferredTestQuery("alter session set current_schema=animals");
dataSource.setTestConnectionOnCheckout(true);

Downside is this will happen every time the connection is taken out of the pool

If you are using a JDBC connection yourself you could just do:

Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver");
Connection connection = getConnection("jdbc:oracle:thin:@//server:1521/instance", "username", "password");
connection.createStatement().execute("alter session set current_schema=animals"));

I also posted it to StackOverflow