Spring Is Here - Get Out and Volunteer!
- Mar 5, 2015
- 2 min read
By Jamie Damato Migdal, CEO and Pet Industry Entrepreneur
I find it a lot easier to contemplate taking on new projects when the weather starts warming up. Maybe it’s the longer days. Maybe it’s the rising sap. Whatever it is, every year around this time I feel like cleaning out the accumulated physical and mental detritus from the winter and starting something new.
I’m not the only entity that starts to get busy in the spring; lots of shelters and rescues see an uptick in adoptions as the weather gets better. With the increased activity, many of these organizations find themselves short-handed and scrambling to take care of the potential adopters as well as the animals. The start of kitten season also puts additional stress on limited resources.
If you’re interested in doing volunteer work with animals but don’t know exactly what you want to do, you can start at one of the big city shelters, like The Anti-Cruelty Society, PAWS, or Chicago Animal Care and Control. The large shelters have a range of volunteer opportunities available, and most will allow cross-training into different programs. These shelters tend to have a wait list, so if you want to sign up be prepared to wait a bit for an open orientation date.
Almost all shelters and rescues need foster volunteers, so if you can have pets in your home this is a great way to help without committing to a certain number of hours at an outside facility. Many rescues are foster-based, which means they can’t bring an animal into their program without already having a foster home lined up for it. A foster pet’s expenses (food, medicine, vet visits, equipment) are covered while in your care, so it’s a great way to be involved for very little cost.
You can also volunteer with your own animals, through programs like Safe Humane Chicago, Sit Stay Read, Canine Therapy Corps, and Pet Partners. Opportunities for animal-assisted therapy range from educational programs with at-risk youth to hospital or care home visits to de-stressing sessions with college students. Some organizations even allow human-animal teams to include pets other than dogs and cats, such as birds, horses, miniature pigs, and llamas.
Other organizations, while still pet-centric, fall more on the social services side of the spectrum. Pets Are Like Family provides goods and services to keep pets healthy and with their families, and The House of Nubs uses rescue birds and their stories to promote resiliency in at-risk children.
In addition to all of the other benefits, volunteering is a great way to build or fill in gaps on a resume. Beyond taking care of the animals, most places will have volunteer opportunities available for people with social media, marketing, photography, clinic, and special event experience; and, if you don’t have the experience but want to get some, it’s a great way to get started.
Where are your favorite places to volunteer? We’d love to hear from you!
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Did you know that FetchFind posts volunteer opportunities for pet-centric non-profits free of charge? Contact hello@fetchfind.com for more details!
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