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One of the most important things you can do at the shelter is provide our furry friends with opportunities to exercise outside of their enclosures and offer them new toys and treats for mental stimulation. These simple tasks help keep our animals happy and stress-free while they wait for their forever home. We have shifts available 7 days a week at both facilities, and once you become a volunteer and complete the needed skills classes, you’re all set to come and get to work! Whether you want to walk dogs, play with cats, or love on our small animals, we have a great volunteer opportunity for you!

As you can probably imagine, we go through massive amounts of laundry and dishes each day! We wash bowls after each meal and regularly change out blankets and bedding to keep all of our residents happy and healthy. We have a large housekeeping room in both of our facilities and always appreciate volunteer support. We even have opportunities to help out with our landscaping for those who like pulling weeds and pruning plants. Volunteer assistance with these tasks enables our staff to devote more time to our animals and potential adopters, helping each furry friend get adopted more quickly! Housekeeping is a great opportunity for folks who like to work behind the scenes, or those who fear they’ll adopt every dog they meet!

Since 2008, our Pet Food Pantry has acted as a safety net program providing resources primarily to struggling pet owners, thanks to our steadfast volunteers and staff. This is one of our most popular volunteer programs! The pantry supplies pet food for:

• Meals on Wheels for Pets (deliveries to homebound seniors).
• Families and individuals facing economic hardship.
• Shelter animals living in dedicated Idaho Humane Society foster homes.
• Other animal welfare groups in need of occasional pet food support.

Volunteers oversee this program by collecting donated food at various business venues, sorting the donated food at our Dorman campus, and organizing it for distribution through our programs. Volunteers may also prepare food for upcoming Meals on Wheels deliveries or deliver the food for recipients, which takes place every other week. We also need assistance with tracking the number of pounds donated in and out of the program, data entry, and much more!

Education is a crucial component of the Idaho Humane Society’s mission to advocate for the welfare and responsible care of animals, protect them from neglect and cruelty, and promote humane awareness and compassion. We strive to share the shelter’s mission and programs and teach younger generations about compassionate care for pets and safety around animals.

Volunteers with education backgrounds may assist our Humane Education Coordinator with transporting animals in our Rodent Rescuer program to classrooms, provide in-class programming, give tours to classes or groups, or work on service projects with youth who visit our center.

We hold many special events throughout the year to help raise funds to help meet our mission. Volunteers can support these events by assisting with registration/check-in, working booths at local venues and events to help provide information to the general public on what we do, set up and tear down events, handle animals if needed, and so much more!

We have two veterinary clinics at the Idaho Humane Society: our Shelter Medical Center located at our Dorman Campus to help animals before they’re adopted, and our Veterinary Medical Center which serves the public and their animals.

Assistance is needed in our Pack Rooms to help clean and sterilize medical instruments. Volunteers can also train to become Recovery Assistants that help monitor the heart rates of recovering animals post-surgery or post-orthopedic surgeries.

The volunteer positions are typically scheduled in four-hour time slots throughout the week, with volunteers committing to one-time slot per week.

If you have any questions about our volunteer program, please contact us at 208-331-8553 or [email protected].

Volunteers may assist with various office administration work, including filing, data entry, scanning paperwork and more for various departments within the Idaho Humane Society.

Assisting with administration work is a popular option for volunteers that do not want to work hands-on with animals. If you are interested in helping in this area, be sure to let the Volunteer Services Manager know at your New Volunteer Orientation.