Volunteer at a local animal shelter

Do you want to help animals in your area? The best way to start is by helping your local shelter protect and care for all of the animals that they have.

Find a shelter near you

Start by searching Petfinder (or Pets911), enter you zip code to find where there are homeless pets near you. You will be able to see where local shelters are by seeing where there are pets that are up for adoption. Get the phone number of the shelter and find out who works there.

Contact 'em

You have the number, the address, and hopefully who works at the shelter, but do you know what you are going to say?

1. Introduce yourself (Name, age, and say that you live nearby but don’t give your full address)
2. Ask them if they could use a volunteer or if there is any way you can help the shelter
3. Find out how a shelter works by asking more questions (it will help you figure out better ways to help)

What if they say you're too young?

Okay, so you called your local shelter and they didn’t have something for you to do. This is not true! Shelters can always use help, you just have to give them the idea...

Here is a list of just some other things you can do for the shelter if they don’t want you handling animals:

At the shelter

• Clean cages, the backyard or even the shelter’s office
• Help make phone calls or do other general shelter office stuff
• Computer Stuff
• Make or maintain an Excel database (it is really easy) to keep track of pets and owners
• Good with web sites? Create a MySpace or other site page for the shelter and help advertise it
• Take pictures of new pets and learn how to put them up for adoption on Petfinder, Pets911, or even advertise them around your neighborhood or school
• Organize an adoption day to get people to see all the great rescue pets there are to adopt
• Become a foster home for animals the shelter doesn’t have room for (Warning: this one definitely requires talking to the parents :O)

What if you can't get to the shelter?

The next step is coming up with ways to fundraise materials the shelter needs (ask them first) or money for operating the shelter. Check out Do Something’s ideas for fundraising.

Also, check out Do Something’s list of ways to help your local shelter and, remember, safety always comes first. Check out our Animal Shelter Safety tipsheet.