Animal shelters and rescues are always looking for volunteers to help them with their important work. The process usually involves an orientation session and some super useful training that you can even apply to your own dog. You can also make it a family affair! While many shelters require volunteers to be 18 years of age, some allow for supervised volunteering with a parent. Also, you might consider exploring what it takes to become a foster family which is a truly important role in animal adoption.
I can also say from personal experience that helping care for animals can be a great anecdote for a stressful job. Dog cuddles are therapeutic and walking dogs is great exercise!
If hands-on animal care is not for you, maybe consider helping the shelter with your business and administrative skills. Do you love the smell of clean laundry or enjoy preparing food? Preparing animal diets and managing laundry are highly valued offerings for animal shelters.
The best part of volunteering is you will find a community of like-minded people that love dogs as much as you do. You can also get some insider information on a new pet for you or a family member by getting personal experience with adoptable dogs at the shelter!
Like the DMV or a school classroom, a shelter is a functional entity. They do their best to create a pleasant environment, but their highest priority is providing a safe space for the animals. If you want to help in a way that does not involve spending time in the shelter but makes a huge difference, you can still support the cause. Here are some ideas:
Start a Donation drive – You can create an engaging workplace initiative to donate to your local animal shelter. Contacting the animal shelter development department, you might be able to get some materials like signs or stickers as well as scannable QR codes that link directly to the shelter donation website. You can help make it easy for your co-workers to donate to a good cause! I used to set up a display outside my office at work with cute laundry hampers that I bought on Amazon with animals on them to collect physical donations of used towels (shelters always need those!), unopened and unexpired dog food and dog treats, new dog toys and dog beds. I would run the drive for a couple of weeks and was astounded at the generosity demonstrated by my colleagues. Many of them told me that they made the weekly run to Costco or Target more of fun when they had their kids pick out a dog toy for the drive or pick up extra dog food or treats when shopping for their own pet.
Get a school involved – I had a friend who told me a story about her daughter, who loved dogs so much and wanted to help those dogs still looking for a forever home. She started selling her packed lunch at school for money to donate to an animal shelter. While dismayed that her carefully prepared lunch was being sold off to the highest bidder in 3rd grade, my friend quickly realized that involving her daughter’s class in helping an animal shelter was a win-win-win! She helped the school connect with the local animal shelter and the class organized a bake sale where all proceeds were donated. In turn, a staff person from the shelter came to the school accompanied by a former shelter dog that was now an assisted therapy animal to share information about dogs and animal welfare and provide the best school day ever!
If you love dogs and want to help as many as you can, I hope some of these ideas will inspire you. There really are so many ways we can support our community in their work to care for all of the wonderful dogs out there.
#rescue #adoption #donation
Naomi Soffa is a certified Veterinary Assistant as well as a University of Washington-certified Animal Behaviorist. She is a longtime volunteer at several animal shelters and rescue organizations around the San Francisco Bay Area. Naomi is also the proud mom of a rescue pet and avid animal lover.
