Volunteering with pets and farm animal is rewarding, but can be quite demanding at times, we need people who are both reliable and dependable, who are willing to turn up, work hard outside in all weathers. It doesn’t matter how cold and wet it is, the animals still rely on us to care for them.
As all volunteers need to go through an induction and training programme which takes time, we need volunteers who can commit to regular morning shifts and can commit to help us for the longer term, 5 months or more, not a few weeks.
Our volunteers aim to complete a morning shift a week, arriving around 7am and finishing around midday, we need people to be on site for at lest 2 hours. Although we need help at the weekends, we give priority to persons who can offer help weekday mornings.
In return you should enjoy your time with us, amongst friends and amazing animals. Whilst it is hard work, we have a volunteer room and toilet, where you can have a break, clean up and make yourself a drink.
Times – Most of the work is early morning, cleaning out aniamls and feeding, we therefore need volunteers to come early, usually around 7am but no later than 8 am. There are tasks later in the day, but much of the hard work getting animals ready in the morning would have needed to be complete.
What Will I be doing? – Most of the work is cleaning the stable yard, mucking out stables and putting in fresh bedding, cleaning out and feeding rabbits and poultry, then its time to poo pick the fields.
Do I Need Experience with Animals? – Previous experience is helpful but not essential, the most important qualities we are looking for is dependability and reliability. With our recruitment process, once inducted you will shadow one of our experienced volunteers to learn what we do and how, where everything is and our daily routines.
Short-Term Volunteering – Our volunteers have to invest a lot of time with new volunteers to reach a stage where they can work independently, this takes time and so we are not able to take on short-term volunteering. We would like persons who aim to volunteer a morning shift weekly or bi-weekly.
| Typical Times | Typical Activities |
| Fist light | – Poultry are let out and checked. – Pigs, cows, horses, goats, sheep etc are fed and checked. |
| 7 – 8 am | Main Sanctuary Volunteers Arrive |
| 7-8 am – 12:00 am | – Stable yard poo picked – Stables are cleaned out. – Yard swept – Hay feeders filled. – Clean / check / feed / water rabbits – Clean out aviaries, feed / water birds – Clean out poultry, feed / water birds – Fields are poo picked. |
| Dusk | – Poultry locked up. |
Volenteer Essentials
Our animal friends depend on us volunteers, we don’t have staff and so the qualities that are essential to volunteering with us are as follows;
Reliability – If a volunteer is absent on an agreed shift, this puts a lot of pressure on other volunteers on shift as the animals still need to be cared for. We understand that sometimes there are good reasons why people can’t attend when they said they would, but we do need people to do their best to show up when agreed. It doesn’t matter how hard its raining or the wind is blowing, we still need to clean out, check and fee all of our animals so we need our volunteers to show up.
Age – We have a lot of large free ranging animals such as horses and cattle, as we are all volunteers, we are not therefore able to offer volunteer places to persons under 16, other than organised School Work Experience.
Supervisor – As we are run solely by volunteers, we can only provide supervision during the induction and training process. For any volunteers who requires ongoing support and / or supervision, such as from a guardian or carer, the person providing such support is also required to complete the our induction process and provide the ongoing support throughout any volunteering. We are not able to offer places for Duke of Edinburgh persons under 16.
Medical Fitness – The activities are moderate, you’ll be moving animal bedding in wheelbarrows, occasionally carrying sacks of feed etc. You don’t need to be super fit, you can take activities at your own pace, it’s not a race. As long as your relatively mobile and fit, it’s an enjoyable way to help exercise.
We do not want people to put themselves at risk. If you have any concerns about your medical fitness to do physical work and be with animals, we advise that you speak to your GP before applying to volunteer.
If you would like to speak to a Trustee in private to discuss any medial issues, concerns or issues we need to be aware of, this can be arranged. We will do all that we can to accommodate you, without putting yourself or others at risk.
Experience – We are not specifically looking for people with experience of handling or caring for animals, but you do need to be comfortable around them, small, wild and very large. We need people who are not put off by hard, mucky work and who are enthusiastic and reliable.
Clothing – You need to come dressed appropriately for the weather and the likely tasks, generally you will get dirty, so bring your scruffs, Wellington boots and waterproofs.
Application Process
The sanctuary is run by a hardcore of dedicated volunteers carrying out tasks throughout the day, every day. As the sanctuary has such a variety of different animals all having varying needs, volunteers need to have a level of experience gained over several weeks of volunteering, before they can be left unsupervised. As volunteers gain experience and gain our confidence, we reduce the supervision accordingly until they can help unsupervised on thier own or in small teams.
If you meet the criteria please complete our online Volunteer Application form then you will be added to our waiting list:
Once an opportunity becomes available you’ll be invited to a new volunteers induction, these are generally held once a month.
Following the induction, you’ll work closely with one of our experienced volunteer until you are ready to volunteer un-supervised.