Introduction
All of the activities required to operate the charity is completed by a team of dedicated, hard working volunteers, each and every day from early morning until late evening. From the mucking out and attending to numerous animals big and small, to managing 27 acres of land and miles of fencing, maintaining vehicles and equipment, its all carried out by our team. We are a family of motivated, well organised, hard working ordinary people who share a passion for caring for all animals.
Unique Opportunity
If you are reliable, dependable and hard working, we offer a very unique opportunity to be part of the Brinsley Family, an opportunity of mutual benefit.
Diverse Experiences – We have a uniquely wide variety of animal species, we rescue all native wildlife, pigeons to birds of prey, hedgehogs to deer, as well as farm animals such as chickens to cattle, ducks to pigs, and domestic pets such as guinea pigs, rabbits and cats. Volunteering with us is a unique opportunity to develop a wide range of skills and experience with such a multitude of species.
We are one of a handful of organisations nationally that rescue such a large variety of species. One minutes we could be trimming rabbits claws, the next bTB testing our cattle herd, then vaccinating sheep and then respond to an emergency wildlife rescue, no two days are ever the same. If you stay with us for the longer-term, we can offer a unique opportunity to gain so much experience hands-on.
The majority of volunteering work is caring for the day to day of the animals, predominantly cleaning out animal enclosures, the more time volunteering with us, the greater and wider the experiences volunteers can gain. Over time, as our volunteers build their confidence, we encourage a wider involvement and taking on more responsibilities for the charities’ activities.
The Brinsley Family – We offer a unique opportunity to help amazing animals and meet like-minded people volunteering to make the world a better place for animals and humans. Through volunteering with us, many people have made great friends, we encourage a community environment and often together we organise events and social evenings such as fuddles, vegan BBQ’s or just meet up for a drink.
Our Culture – We encourage an open-minded, friendly and welcoming environment, we welcome volunteers from all walks of life no matter what your previous experience caring for animals, being motivated, reliable and dependable, not matter what the weather, are the important qualities we need from our volunteers. You can learn the rest by volunteering.
Pet & Farm Animal Volunteer
Each day there are a multitude of jobs that our team need to complete from early morning until around midday. We start with mucking out the stables, then we clean out the poultry, rabbits, pigs and sheep, before clearing the animal faeces from the grazing fields.
This is outside and in all weathers, starting 8am latest. Our volunteers aim to complete a 4 hour (2 hour minimum) morning shift each week.
For this role previous experience with pets and large farm animals is not necessary. We require volunteers at weekends but often have more opportunity at weekdays mornings.
Wildlife Hospital Volunteer
Every morning from 7am our dedicated volunteers attend to all of the wildlife in our care.
This role is being part of a small team but often working on your own. The tasks are predominantly cleaning and sterilising cages and work surfaces, along with assessing and attending to the variety of wildlife in our care.
Working in our hospital requires a lot of additional training and therefore we are only able to offer opportunities to persons with veterinary or wildlife rehabilitation experience or our existing volunteers, that have been with us for sometime and proved themselves to be reliable and regular.
Maintenance Volunteer
With 27 acres of land, buildings, animal enclosures and vehicles, there are always lots of maintenance activities to be completed, as well as projects to deliver.
We need volunteers with good DIY skills who can work in small teams as well as drive and complete tasks on their own.
Cat Foster Volunteer
We want cats to live in foster homes as though they were a permanent home, so that they will be relaxed and show natural behaviour. This allows the cat to be fully assessed and help in the process of finding a permanent home, allowing a potential new owner see a cat in a home setting, not in a cage.
A cat foster’s role will be to help assess and nurture any cat(s) and help the charity find a lifelong loving home.
Species Lead Volunteer
Our experienced longer-term volunteers can go advance to Species Lead, the charities lead volunteer who take on additional responsibilities for thier chosen species.
Shorter Term Volunteering
We can occasionally offer placements for shorter term volunteering such as work placements for Schools and higher education, as well as Corporate Days. Places are limited so please get in touch in good time to see if we can support.
Questions & Answers
Q. IS there a minimum age? – Other than for organised Work Placements (by arrangement) the minimum age for volunteering is 16.
Q. Do you offer apprenticeships or paid work? – Everyone at the sanctuary is an unpaid volunteer, we do not employ any staff.
Q. Do you offer places for Duke of Edinburgh? – Unfortunately we are not able to offer volunteering places for DoE.
Q. Can I volunteer in the wildlife hospital? – Working with wildlife in our hospital requires a lot of additional supervision and training and therefore we are only able to offer volunteering opportunities to persons with existing wildlife rehabilitation experience or our existing volunteers, that have been with us for sometime and proved themselves to be reliable and regular.
Q. Can I just look after one species? – We work as a team and so need volunteers that want to get involved with all activities.
Q. I have a disability, can I volunteer? – We do our very best to accommodate everyone, if you can join us without putting yourself at risk then we will do all that we can to include you as we do everyone. If in dount please get in touch.
Q. Do you offer free accommodation? – We do not provide accommodation for volunteers.