Planning
Volunteering with animals: telling a sanctuary from an attraction
If you can touch them, bathe them or pose with them, it's almost never a sanctuary. The signs that give it away and the questions that confirm it.
Irene Salazar 6 min Photo by Steve Enoch on Unsplash Volunteering with animals is the fastest-growing kind and the most distorted. The good news is that the line between a serious centre and a business shows up quickly if you know what to look at.
The signs that give an attraction away
- Direct contact with cubs, which almost always means separating them from their mothers.
- Rides on animals or baths with them.
- Shows, displays or photo sessions as the central activity.
- New animals every season, which can only mean breeding or buying.
- A very high number of volunteers rotating every two weeks.
What a real sanctuary does
It rescues animals that can't return to the wild, keeps them with as little human contact as possible and works so that their population doesn't grow. The volunteer's job there is unglamorous: preparing food, cleaning enclosures, maintaining fences and recording data.
If the programme promises the opposite, it's selling something else.
Questions before booking
- Where do the animals come from and what happens to them afterwards?
- Is contact with visitors allowed? And with volunteers?
- Do you breed? If so, to what end?
- Is the centre recognised by any sanctuary federation or network?
- What would I do on a normal day, hour by hour?
And a practical part people forget
These projects tend to sit in rural areas with patchy coverage, and the work is physical with long hours. Expect to be barely connected, and tell people at home when you'll be able to talk.
What to expect from the connection in a place like that is in internet on a rural volunteering placement.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if an animal sanctuary is serious?
It doesn't allow touching, riding or bathing the animals, it doesn't breed or buy them, and the volunteer's work is maintenance, not posing with cubs.
Why is contact with cubs a bad sign?
Because it usually means separating them from their mothers, and because it creates a demand that gets met by breeding or buying animals.
What does a volunteer do at a sanctuary?
Prepares food, cleans enclosures, maintains the facilities and records data. Unglamorous work, and exactly the work that's needed.
Will I have coverage?
They tend to be in rural areas with patchy signal. Tell people at home when you'll be able to talk and don't count on being connected all day.
