How to Volunteer at an Animal Shelter

If you’re passionate about helping animals, volunteering at an animal shelter can be an incredibly fulfilling experience. According to the ASPCA, approximately 6.3 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters each year. By offering your time, skills, and compassion, you can contribute to the well-being of these shelter pets and help them get adopted, while also gaining valuable experience. 

Shelters are always in need of assistance from a variety of people, each offering different skills and areas of interest. We’ve detailed everything you need to know about what to expect after you’ve decided to volunteer at an animal shelter.

What do volunteers do at an animal shelter? 

Operating an animal shelter involves a plethora of tasks and chores that must be addressed daily to keep the rescue running smoothly, and to ensure the well-being of the animals. There’s usually something for every volunteer to plug into and help with.

Below is a list of common tasks for which animal shelters may need help. Note: You may need more in-depth training (provided by the shelter) before you can jump in on some of these — especially hands-on animal care. 

Animal care

Of course, providing high-quality animal care is a crucial component to successfully operating an animal shelter. Volunteers can often assist with care tasks including feeding animals at mealtime, providing them with enrichment toys and snacks, keeping their water bowls full, taking a shelter dog for a walk, bathing and grooming new intakes, and bottle-feeding neonates.

Socialization 

Many pets who enter shelters are undersocialized or have experienced traumatic events. Helping to provide positive socialization experiences for them can greatly increase their chances of successful adoption and also improve the pets’ quality of life while they’re in the shelter. 

Some shelters have behavior departments with staff who can train volunteers to gently assist with socialization and positive reinforcement training. 

Adoption support and customer service

Providing helpful, attentive engagement with potential adopters and folks seeking services is an important part of running an animal shelter. Volunteers can assist with adoption support and customer service in a myriad of ways, such as greeting the public as they enter the building, helping people fill out adoption or relinquishment paperwork, offering adoption counseling, introducing people to adoptable pets, connecting those seeking assistance with the right departments, answering phone calls, and much more. 

Facility maintenance and cleaning

A clean and smoothly run facility is critical to the well-being of the animals, shelter staff, volunteers, and the public who visit the building. Cleaning tasks typically happen at least twice a day. They include: washing out kennels; doing laundry; cleaning surfaces, food bowls, carriers, and toys; mopping floors; and scooping out litter boxes.

Facility maintenance tasks can include shelter-wide inspections and upkeep of utilities, HVAC systems, plumbing, and electronic systems. If you are a professional in any relevant trades or have adequate training, you can volunteer your time and skills to make repairs or assist with scheduled maintenance. 

Fostering animals

If volunteering on-site at an animal shelter isn’t your jam, you can foster a shelter animal from the comfort of your home. The most commonly fostered shelter animals are dogs and cats, but you may also find rabbits, pet rats, hamsters, reptiles, and birds in need of foster care. Fostering a cat, dog, or other animal in need is an amazing way to offer a pet one-on-one attention and respite from the loud, often overwhelming environment of shelters. 

Most shelters will supply everything you’ll need to care for your foster buddy, including food, medicine, toys, leashes, harnesses, a bed, carriers, and treats. For shelters that don’t supply everything, the cost of fostering typically ranges from $50 to $100 and is tax deductible. You may also be able to participate in a foster-to-adopt program. 

Administrative and event support

Volunteers who receive training can help with a host of admin tasks including entering animal intake information and adding info as required to reflect behavioral assessments, medical updates, adoption or foster status, and more. 

You can also help make phone calls, send emails, set up visitor appointments, maintain volunteer databases, help the finance and accounting departments, file paperwork, organize adoption forms and medical records, provide tech support, and assist with supply inventory. 

Animal shelters also hold events throughout the year. These are usually adoption or fundraising events and can be held onsite or at a separate location as a part of a larger function. Volunteers can help with event planning, outreach, registration, and day-of tasks.

Requirements to volunteer at an animal shelter

If you’re wondering if there are any requirements to volunteer at an animal shelter, the answer is, yes, most shelters have a list of conditions you’ll need to meet to volunteer. These requirements are in place to keep everyone safe, to place people in roles that match their skills and abilities, and to keep volunteer shifts organized.

Age requirements

The minimum age requirement for volunteering at an animal shelter varies by location and each shelter’s policy. Some shelters, such as the San Francisco SPCA, require that all volunteers be at least 18 years old. 

If you’re under the age of 18, some locations, such as the Animal Humane Society, have a minimum volunteer age of 16. Other shelters, including the SPCA of Texas, allow even younger volunteers if they team with an adult guardian.

Time commitment and scheduling

To have an efficient and well-organized volunteer system, many shelters have a minimum commitment requirement per month and per shift. 

These requirements typically range from a minimum of two to eight hours per month for at least one to six consecutive months, and volunteer shifts are often one to four hours. The flexibility of these requirements varies by the shelter, although most try to keep a consistent schedule. 

Physical abilities and limitations

Some animal shelter volunteer roles, such as dog walking and kennel cleaning, require lots of walking, lifting, and standing.

Still, there are plenty of volunteer tasks that can accommodate a range of physical abilities and limitations. Communicate your accessibility needs with the volunteer coordinator so they can match you with an appropriate and enjoyable role. 

Training and orientation

To volunteer at an animal shelter, most locations require new people to attend at least one orientation and training session that explains the shelter’s procedures, expectations, safety rules, and general information on interacting with shelter animals. This session may be virtual or in-person, depending on the shelter’s policy.

After an initial orientation, most volunteers can jump right into helping with tasks such as cleaning, filling kongs with peanut butter, and distributing clean blankets into kennels. As you gain additional training and experience, you can typically begin helping with more hands-on animal care tasks and adoption support.

How to start volunteering at an animal shelter

If you’ve decided that you want to volunteer at an animal shelter, you’ll want to do your research, consider how you can best plug in, and get started on the volunteer application process. 

Researching local shelters and their missions

If you live in a metropolitan area, you may find that there are a number of animal shelters to choose from. Most shelters have an online presence, so check out their website and social media accounts to learn about their mission and how they operate. 

Some shelters are a bit less public-facing, while others host lots of events and offer a diverse range of volunteer opportunities. Researching each location will help you pick the best match. 

Visiting the shelter and observing operations

Some shelters are appointment-only, while others allow the public to visit anytime during open hours. Depending on the location, you may be able to schedule a time to visit the shelter and learn more about its operations, or you could pop in at your convenience. 

Aligning your interests and skills with shelter needs

If you’re wondering how to be a good volunteer at an animal shelter, a core part of that is aligning your interests and skills with the shelter’s needs. Most shelters are dependent on volunteers and will happily work with you to match your skills and interests with volunteer tasks. 

Are you a photographer? Taking cute, creative, and eye-catching photos of adoptable animals is enormously helpful and increases their chances of adoption. Are you a vet tech? You may be able to volunteer with the shelter’s clinic, which will also be a great addition to your resume.

Animal shelter application process 

Many shelters have their volunteer applications available online. This application may collect your contact and ID information, ask for confirmation of a minimum time commitment, and inquire about your relevant skills, interests, and experiences. 

After your application is accepted (usually within a week), some shelters require that you pay a one-time fee that typically ranges from $10 to $50 to cover the cost of initial training and volunteer shirts. 

Commonly asked questions

What are other ways to help an animal shelter?

There are plenty of ways to help shelter animals without adopting or volunteering onsite, including hosting fundraising and educational events, assisting with the shelter’s social media accounts, donating money or supplies, creating awareness campaigns, offering graphic design skills, and grant writing. 

Should I foster a pet? 

Fostering pets is a great way to help your local shelter and can bring so much joy and fulfillment to the foster parent. Many shelters have foster departments with dedicated staff who can help you choose your foster pet and will support you throughout the process. If you have the time, space, and emotional capacity to welcome a shelter animal into your home as a foster pet, we highly recommend the experience. 

References

Pet Statistics

Volunteer: Change Lives

Volunteer at AHS

Ways to Volunteer