Volunteer for Animals - Make a New Year's Resolution: Volunteer! - Holiday 2006 - Out of the Cage!, the E-Newsletter of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals

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Volunteer for Animals

Make a New Year's Resolution: Volunteer!

Volunteers are needed at adoption events to handle animals, promote pet adoptions, answer questions, and perform the other tasks that make each event successful.

If you're reading this newsletter, chances are you love animals. So why not convert that love into something tangible — like a volunteer commitment! If you already volunteer at a shelter or with a rescue or feral cat TNR group, you know the joy and satisfaction you receive from your involvement with the animals. But if you aren't currently engaged in volunteering, now is a good time to think about making that commitment in the new year.

One of the great things about animal volunteer work is that there always is a tremendous variety of activities in which you can indulge. Do you want to walk dogs? Socialize cats? Do you have animal grooming or training skills you'd like to put to use? Most shelters and many rescue groups would be delighted to have you volunteer with them. To locate a shelter or animal rescue group in your area, go to the list of Alliance Participating Organizations (APOs) to learn about your local organizations.

Do you like to volunteer at events, like adoption events, fundraisers, or informational tabling? Then volunteer with the Mayor's Alliance (click here to apply online) or a rescue group or shelter in your area.

Mayor's Alliance Volunteer Roxana Petzold volunteers at Mayor's Alliance events, such as a low-cost microchipping clinic in Central Park.

Or maybe you have media skills, such as writing, producing, film editing, or related skills. Contact Rational Animal at info@rational-animal.org to put those skills to work for NYC's animals.

If you're a cat lover and enjoy being outdoors, you might want to volunteer with a feral cat group that manages feral colonies and does trap-neuter-return (TNR). For a list of feral cat APOs, visit the New York City Feral Cat Council (NYCFCC) page.

You can begin your training to assist in feral cat work by first taking the Feral Cat Training offered by Neighborhood Cats. For details about the training, visit NYCFeralCat.org.

Previous issues of Out of the Cage! have featured articles about affiliated programs where volunteers are always welcomed. One such program, JASA Pets (the pet care program of the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged) provides volunteer assistance to seniors who have pets but need help caring for them — such as walking the dog, taking the cat to the vet, and other activities. The program currently serves only Manhattan, but has its sights set on expanding to other boroughs in the future. For information about volunteering with the JASA Pets program, contact Paul Domin at pdomin@jasa.org.

Another affiliated program, the St. Vincent's Patient Pet Care Program at St. Vincent's Hospital on West 12th Street in Manhattan, helps care for pets while their people are patients in St. Vincent's Hospital. Volunteers walk, feed, and attend to special needs of the animals until their owner/guardians can once again care for them. To learn more about the program and its volunteer opportunities, contact Kate Fischer, Program Coordinator, at mfischer@svcmcny.org.

So many opportunities…so little time. But even a couple of hours a week devoted to making life better for the animals can be an amazingly enriching experience — both for you and the animals.

For information about volunteering with the Mayor's Alliance or to complete a volunteer application online, click here. To find out about volunteer opportunities with any of the Alliance Participating Organizations (APOs), click here and select from the list of APOs.