Animal shelter volunteering?help? :)?

Question

Hey everyone! So I decided this summer I was going to volunteer at my local humane society and I was just a little nervous about it and have a few questions for anyone who would like to answer them! First off- was it easy to get involved with? like did you have to go in the office like 10 million times and track down all kinds of mysterious supervisors and whatnot? Second- was everyone mostly nice to you? did the people seem friendly I guess is what I mean. Third- Did it get terribly sad seeing all those poor animals? or were you excited to help them? Finally- did you actually get to hands on help the animals? like feeding or walking, (doing paperwork and things like that is totally fine..but it would be nice to be able to do some hands on kinda stuff.)

Thanks guys!

!peace!andlove!

Answer 1

There are volunteers as well as paid employees. The paid employees tend to do the cleaning of cages, as well as coming in the mornings to get everything ready. They are also the people that work at the front desk. When volunteering you will mainly be playing, walking, and overall trying to find homes for the pets hands on. Hope that helps.

Answer 2

I volunteered in a local private no-kill shelter and it was much simpler and less stressful that a large metropolitan shelter. Go to PetFinder.com and look under find a shelter and enter your zip code. There are usually lots of smaller private shelters who would love your help, and wouldn't have all the bureaucracy. They almost always have a lower kill rate as well.

You can usually do lots of hands on - cleaning and bathing and walking and....

Answer 3

It depends.  Some shelters are more organized than others.  Volunteers usually do all the stuff that employees don't have time to do.  Paid shelter employees are really busy doing other tasks, and hardly have the time to walk dogs.  This is where volunteers step in.  Others like working with cats, and you can do that, too.  Different volunteers have different reactions to the dogs.  Some seem to get sad/upset because not all dogs always get adopted.

In my opinion, it's awesome that you care for these animals, but don't stress yourself out.  What do I mean by that?  Try to stay away from the "I'm out to save the world" mentality.  You're there to do your best and help in any way you can, but you must accept the fact that not all can or will be saved.  If you ever notice that a dog has been removed from a kennel/cage and not brought back days after, move on and concentrate on the new arrivals...because now THEY need your help.  Whatever you do, whether big or small, has already made a difference.

By playing/walking that particular dog, you've already helped minimize that dog's stress levels.  This is very good because if they're not taken out for walks, they'll start to go crazy/neurotic in their cages/kennel.  Once they've reached that point, there is a very high chance of it getting put down.  If you want to save all the dogs in the world, you'll have to start by educating the owners.. That, however, is at a whole different level.  They'll need a 1000ml injection filled with something called common sense ( most of them do).  Good luck!