Departmental Volunteer Opportunities

Department Volunteer Opportunities are only available to volunteers who have completed Steps to Volunteering and have attended a volunteer orientation. We will love working with you to make a difference in the lives of our shelter animals!

Administrative

Volunteer Opportunities weekdays between 8:30 AM and 4:30 PM. Clerical and office volunteer opportunities and internships are available in our different Administrative offices. Office/ clerical/ computer knowledge is required. Contact: Jessica Dettling, jessica.dettling@wpahumane.org, 412 321-4625 x 221

Adoptions And Intake

Our Intake and Adoptions staff handles animal intake and adoptions, writing animal bios and taking animals' photos for our website, canine behavior evaluations, spot-cleaning and afternoon feeding in our dog kennels, front desk, clerical duties, visitor assistance, and more!

Volunteer Opportunities flexible schedule
Helping to photograph our animals and upload pictures to our web page, spot cleaning the dog and cat cages, assisting visitors and potential adopters on busy days to help them find the perfect pet for their lifestyle, cleaning and sanitizing animal crates and carriers, keeping our animals' kennel cards neat and up-to-date, preparing adoption packets.

Animal Care/Kennel

Our Animal Care and Kennel staff is responsible for cleaning and sanitizing our animals' living spaces each morning, first feedings, spot-cleaning holding areas, washing bowls, facility maintenance, canine behavior evaluations, doing laundry, and much more!

Volunteer Opportunities schedule varies according to opportunity. Kennel cleaning-cat, dog, rabbit cages, laundry, bowl washing, cleaning/sanitizing sidewalks, watering plantings, washing windows and walls, mopping/sanitizing floors, changing garbage bags, cleaning parking lot.

Investigations Department

This department takes complaints of animal abuse and neglect, follows up on those complaints, conducts home visits for potential bully breed adopters and responds to questions about legal statutes regarding animals. Because of the nature of this department, safety and liability issues, no volunteer opportunities are offered.

Lost And Found Department

This department takes reports of lost or found animals, searches reports and our shelter animals to find matches.

Volunteer Opportunities - early morning and late afternoon schedule. Phone message retrieval, clerical, database searches.

Assistance

Our Membership and Development Departments send out regular mailings which require stuffing and labeling.

Volunteer help is very helpful with these large mailings, and this opportunity can be done from your home while watching TV!Volunteer Opportunities - flexible schedule, some opportunities can be done from home.

Obedience Training

This department is responsible for scheduling our many and varied dog obedience classes, stocking instructor's closets, keeping Learning Centers clean and sanitized, providing assistance to instructors, counseling adopters with behaviorally-challenged dogs, designing and implementing new and unique classes, printing diplomas and class schedules, and much more.

Volunteer Opportunities - schedule varies according to opportunity. Facilitating access to the shelter for early morning and late evening obedience classes, clerical assistance and phone work, assisting obedience instructors with dog and puppy classes, monitoring/stocking instructor's closets, cleaning and sanitizing Learning Centers, helping to design and implement special projects and classes.

Offsite/Fundraising Events

Our Offsite/Fundraising Events Department schedules events, chooses appropriate animals for different venues, compiles handouts and information, schedules volunteers, and supervises each event.

Volunteer Opportunities - schedule varies according to opportunity. Contacting volunteers to inform of upcoming events, attending events in a supervisory capacity, clerical help, printing kennel cards, evaluating animals for offsite suitability, stuffing gift bags and manning registration/raffle tables for large events.

Veterinary Clinic

Our staff veterinarians and veterinary technicians provide medical and evaluative care to our shelter animals as well as providing low-cost spay/neuter and wellness care to adopted animals and owned animals. We also hold quarterly low-cost vaccine clinics for pet owners, and low-cost spay days.

Volunteer Opportunities - schedule varies according to opportunity. Clerical help and phone work, assistance at low-cost vaccine clinics. We do not offer volunteer opportunities involving direct handling/medical care of shelter and/or outside animals in our clinic.

Volunteer/Foster Programs

This department is responsible for responding to volunteer and foster applicants, scheduling orientations and training new volunteers, interacting with volunteers and foster parents, record-keeping, monitoring animals in need of foster homes, contacting potential foster parents, sending animals to foster, monitoring collars, leashes, and other supplies in the dog kennel, generating volunteer e-newsletters, scheduling specialty training opportunities for volunteers, planning the annual volunteer dinner, and much, much more!

Volunteer Opportunities - schedule varies according to opportunity. Responding to volunteer applicants, scheduling attendance at orientations, making reminder calls before orientations, clerical work, phone work, verifying foster application accuracy, monitoring dog kennel supplies, updating dog walking board, assisting in volunteer training, entering/updating volunteer information in our shelter database.