Introduction
Volunteering with animals is very rewarding, but the work can be quite physically demanding at times, we need people who are both reliable and dependable, who are willing to turn up early when a shift has been agreed and work hard outside in all weathers. It doesn’t matter how cold and wet the day is, our animals rely on us to care for them no matter what. If a volunteer doesn’t show up, the work still needs to be completed.
Everyone including Work Placement Volunteers are required to go through an induction which will take place before your placement with us, these are held in groups, we hold once a month.
Our volunteers aim to complete a morning shift a week, arriving around 7-8am and finishing around midday, we need people to be with us for at least 2 hours. Each morning our volunteers work in small teams of 2 or 3, we give priority to those who can help in the week when we most need people.
We can occasionally support short-term volunteering when we have sufficient volunteers to provide supervision.
Requirements
- Minimum age 15.
- All students will need to attend an Induction prior to the start date, we hold the inductions once a month usually on a weekday evening.
- Volunteering will be on weekday mornings, starting at 8 am, finishing times vary depending on the jobs of the day, usually by midday.
- Due to an early start, please ensure you have considered transportation to arrive by 8am.
- The minimum work experience is five consecutive days.
- Whilst we will do our very best to keep to any agreed dates, we may have to cancel at very short notice if we, for example, struggle to have sufficient volunteer supervisors.
- We are not able to support DoE work expertise.
Typical Day
| Typical Time | Typical Activities |
|---|---|
| First Light | 1. Poultry are let out and checked. 2. The pigs, cows, horses, goats, sheep etc are fed and checked. |
| 8am – 12:00 am | 3. We clean the stable yard by shovelling animal poo into a wheelbarrow. 4. The stables are all mucked out, we removed the poo and wet straw, put fresh straw in and sweep. 5. The stable yard is swept clean and washed. 6. Fill the hay feeders with bales of fresh hay. 7. Clean out the rabbits and Guinea pigs, give them fresh bedding, lots of hay, feed them and give fresh water. 8. Clean out the bird aviaries, fill up feeders and wash, fill water troughs. 9. Clean out the poultry, give fresh bedding, feed and water. 10. Using a wheelbarrows and scoop, poo pick the main fields. |
| Dusk | Poultry locked up. |
Application Process
- Please contact us first to confirm if the dates you require are available.
- Once we have confirmed we can support the requested dates, please submit an application form using the link below.
- Prior to the Work Placement, we will invite you to an induction, we usually hold these at our main site on a weekday evening.