Volunteer with Friends of BCAS
Our mission is to make our shelter's animals happier and give them a better chance at adoption, and since we are an all-volunteer program we can't do that without dedicated volunteers! We need you!
Volunteer Training Information:
RSVPs are required for all classes.
General Orientation for New Volunteers:
RSVP here http://friendsofbcas-orientation.eventbrite.com to attend a General Orientation where you'll take a tour of the shelter and learn about many of our volunteer opportunities, including walking dogs, playing with cats, photography, grooming, fostering and more.
If you are interested in handling shelter animals, the General Orientation is required.
Note: If no Orientation dates are available in the dropdown menu, our upcoming Orientations are full. The best time to check is within the first week or two of each month.
The Volunteer Application is not required for General Orientations. Please bring it to your Dog or Cat Handling Class.
Dog Walking for Beginners:
If you'd like to start walking dogs at BCAS, read on! Volunteers must take two classes, a Beginner Dog Walking instruction class followed up by an evaluation of their skills, before they are allowed to handle the easy "Green" rated dogs.
• RSVP for Beginner Dog Walking: http://beginner-dog-demo.eventbrite.com. Bring your $12 t-shirt fee and a completed volunteer application to this class! RSVP only if you've attended a General Orientation.
Advanced "Yellow" Dog Walking:
An additional class, including an evaluation, is required for existing Dog Walking volunteers to advance on to handling more difficult and stronger "Yellow" rated dogs.
Advanced "Red" Dog Walking:
This is a consecutive 2-week class with Dee, our volunteer dog trainer. Volunteers who would like to handle more challenging dogs with various behavioral issues, e.g. mouthy, mounting, leash biting, very fearful, etc. Prior experience with medium to large dogs is preferred. Upon completion you may be permitted to handle some 'Red' dogs at the shelter, depending on your skill set.
• RSVP for Red Dog Walking: http://dog-advanced-red-class.eventbrite.com. RSVP only if you (1) Are an active "Yellow" FOBCAS dog walker, (2) Have at least 20 hours of walking "Yellow" dogs at BCAS, (3) Must be able to come to the shelter at least 2 days a week, (4) Have the physical strength to handle very strong dogs.
Cat Cuddlers:
For volunteers who'd like to be able to pet and play with BCAS kitties, read on! Volunteers must take two classes, a Cat Handling instruction class followed up by an evaluation of their skills, before they are allowed to handle any cats.
• RSVP for Cat Handling Instruction: http://cat-handling-demo.eventbrite.com. Bring your $12 t-shirt fee and a completed volunteer application to this class! RSVP only if you've attended a General Orientation.
Walk Dogs and Play with Cats!
We always need more people willing to walk the dogs and play with the cats! The shelter has the capacity for hundreds of animals, and the shelter workers simply don't have enough time to ensure every animal gets attention every day. That's why volunteers are so important! Human interaction helps the animals release pent-up energy and reduces their stress, making them happier and more attractive to potential adopters. You really can help animals get adopted just by walking a dog or petting a cat!
Requirements:
• Attend a General Orientation and a Cat or Dog Orientation (details at the top of this page).
How to Walk a Dog at the Burlington County Animal Shelter
Advertise Animals Online
The majority of people coming to the shelter to see our animals see them online first at adoption websites like Petfinder.com and AdoptAPet.com, and videos to our Youtube channel. Posting animals online is a critical part of getting animals adopted and is a 100% volunteer effort.
You can help with posting animals in three ways:
• Poster: This is the biggest and most important job. Animal posters collect information, photographs and sometimes video of the animals in person at the shelter. Posters upload the information online from home for the world to see. Training is provided for volunteer posters.
• Editor: Help us fine-tune and spruce up our animals' online biographies by putting your creative writing and grammar skills to use. (This is a limited opportunity and is done from home. Contact Jenn at
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to help out.)
• Photographer: Eye-catching pictures can make a tremendous difference in the adoptability of our animals! Photographers take pictures of our animals at their own leisure so they can be posted online.
• Handler: Assist our posters and photographers and make their jobs easier by handling the animals for them. It is especially difficult to get nice pictures of a dog when you have one hand on a leash and the other on a camera!
Requirements:
• Handlers, posters and photographers must attend a General Orientation and a Cat or Dog Orientation (details at the top of this page).
• After attending an orientation, contact Jenn at
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to become a volunteer poster, photographer, or handler.
Petsmart Cat Adoption Center
Friends of BCAS is partnering with BCAA Felines (a division of BCAA - www.BCAAofNJ.org) by adopting out former shelter cats through the Mt. Laurel Petsmart's Adoption Center! This Petsmart Adoption Center and BCAA Feline Volunteers have been EXTREMELY helpful in saving the lives of BCAS cats by relieving much pressure at the shelter during times of overcrowding, and by rescuing cats whose chances of adoption are otherwise slim to none.
Volunteers are needed:
• MORNINGS some time between 7am - 10am. Takes about an hour to clean litterboxes, cages, and floor, and refill food and water bowls.
• WEEKNIGHTS 7pm - 9 pm. Cleaning, feeding, socializing cats and speaking to potential adopters.
• WEEKENDS are very busy! Need people from opening to closing, particularly mid-day, to speak to potential adopters and tend to the daily cleaning, feeding and socializing tasks. Closing times are Saturday - 9pm; Sunday - 6pm.
CONTACT:
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Foster Cats & Dogs
Fosters are always very much needed, but especially so during the spring and summer months, aka "kitten season", where shelters across the country are flooded with new cats and kittens. Many shelters are unable to keep up with this influx, and must do what is necessary to continue being able to accept more animals. That's why foster homes are so important. Not only does fostering an animal free up a spot in the shelter for another animal, fostered animals are then able to live in a safe, comfortable home where they can live a much happier, more relaxed life while they wait for their forever home.
To Foster:
Friends of BCAS does not directly foster animals, but we can put you in touch with organizations and people who do, and who will help you save our shelter's animals.
CATS: Contact BCAA Felines at
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for more information about fostering BCAS's cats and kittens.
DOGS: You must be an active Friends of BCAS volunteer to foster a dog through the shelter. You will be responsible for food and supplies, i.e. leash, collar, toys, etc. Minor medical needs will be covered by the shelter and/or Friends of BCAS. This is not a foster-to-adopt program. You will be expected to help find your foster dog a permanent home by providing updated bio information to be used for online marketing, bring your foster dog to the shelter for exposure, make arrangements for potential adopters to meet the dog at your home, etc. If you would like to foster a shelter dog, please contact Penny at
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.
Dog Kennel Enrichment
No matter how good a shelter is, it still isn’t a home. Living in a shelter can be stressful for dogs, especially those who stay for two weeks or longer. We like to keep our shelter dogs happy, healthy, and sound until they are sent home. Enrichment is a vital component of a successful adoption program. Unhappy, frustrated, or bored dogs do not show well in their kennels and potential adopters will be put off by their kennel-induced behaviors. Enrichment helps to counter these behaviors by making the dogs’ environments more stimulating and challenging through the use of toys, puzzles, sensory games and any other novel experiences. When your dogs are healthier and happier, they’ll get adopted faster!
If you would like to volunteer with our Dog Kennel Enrichment Program, please contact Penny at
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.
Feed Baby Kittens
The shelter frequently gets kittens who have been separated from their mothers before they've been weaned. These babies can't eat solid food yet and can only drink milk, which means somebody's got to feed them! The shelter staff often can't handle the amount of babies that come in on their own, so they need us to pitch in.
Requirements:
• Attend a cat orientation (details at the top of this page).
• After attending an orientation, contact Nicole at
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or Sue at
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to become a volunteer bottlefeeder.
Help Groom Shelter Animals
A clean animal is a happy animal! It's also a lot prettier and more appealing to potential adopters. BCAS has the capacity to kennel hundreds of animals at a time, so we can ALWAYS use more help with keeping all of our cats and dogs clean and presentable.
• Groomer: Volunteer grooming can include bathing, nail clipping, ear cleaning, fur trimming, and other hygienic upkeep.
• Groomer's Assistant: Assist our groomers and make their jobs much easier by helping them handle the animals.
Requirements:
• Attend a General Orientation and a Cat or Dog Orientation (details at the top of this page).
• Contact Tracey at
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to groom DOGS, or Jenn at
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to groom CATS.
Miscellaneous
Self-Motivated And Organized?
• Managers, Coordinators, Assistants: If you've got management experience, or just good people-skills and a keen sense of organization, we could use your help handling regular organizational tasks, keeping tabs on sub-programs and tracking progress. You'll work closely with the current Program Coordinators and have plenty of help! Contact Jenn at
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to help out.
• Events: We're looking for people with some experience with participating in or organizing events, or the willingness to give it a try. Contact Jean at
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.
• Fundraising: We're looking for people with some general fundraising or grant-writing experience or the willingness to give it a try. People interested in helping us get donations for both our own program and our shelter should contact Jenn at
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to help out.
Already Know A Lot About Our Program?
• Orientation Class Teachers: Pass your knowledge of our volunteering program on to new volunteers by helping us hold our cat or dog orientations. Training provided. Contact Jenn at
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to help.
• Tour Guides: Take groups on a tour of our shelter, show them our animals and the shelter facility, make visiting groups feel special and their donations appreciated! Training provided. Contact Linda at
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to help.
• Shelter Greeters: Greet visitors, answer basic questions and help make the shelter a cheerier place! Training provided. Contact Penny at
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or Jenn at
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to help.
Know A Lot About Animals?
• Animal Behavior Programs: We are looking for trainers or experienced animal handlers to help us develop our animal behavior and training programs (or to simply help our animals behave better). You can work hands-on with the animals yourself and train your fellow humans in how to properly handle and understand cats and dogs. Contact Penny at
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or Jenn at
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to help.
Want To Help From Home?
• Social Networking: Help us keep our social media sites running. Help us run our Facebook, Twitter and Youtube accounts, and help us maintain our website content. This opportunity is limited. Contact Jenn at
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to help out.
• Data Entry & Copypasting: Help our Volunteer Posters out by posting information about adoptable animals to adoption websites. Training provided. This opportunity is limited. Contact Jenn at
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to help out.
• Simple Ways You Can Help Us:
- Tell your family, friends, neighbors, community or local media about our program!
- Help us distribute our business cards, flyers and pamphlets far and wide.
- Find us, Like us, Follow us and Subscribe to us on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
- Donate to us or our shelter. A list of items the shelter can use can be found here. See our "About Us" webpage for monetary donations.
For Kids (18 and under)
We do not have a junior volunteer program at this time, though it's something we'd love to have in the future. We are unable to accept any volunteers under 18 years of age for volunteerwork at the shelter, but here are some ways for productive younger would-be volunteers to help out from home:
• Sign up to our newsletter! You'll receive notifications when we have events that we can use extra help with.
• Run a donation drive! Kids do these all the time, and they're greatly appreciated. Check ours and the shelter's wishlist for a list of items we need.
• Run a fundraiser! We suggest donating all cash proceeds to Friends of BCAS, as we can be more flexible with charitable spending than our county shelter can be.
• Spread the word about our program! We always have need for adopters, fosters and volunteers to help save animals' lives and find them great forever homes, but not everybody knows we're here!
• Schedule a class or group tour of the shelter with us and get a first-hand look at the adoptable pets and what our shelter does :)
