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Volunteer Opportunities with Friends of BCAS
We love new volunteers! Before handling animals, volunteers must
fill out a volunteer application and attend an orientation.
fill out a volunteer application and attend an orientation.
Orientation Schedule:
• CAT Orientation:
Mondays at 6 PM.
• DOG Orientation:
Thursdays at 6 PM
and the first Saturday each month at 11 AM.
and the first Saturday each month at 11 AM.
Orientations last about an hour.
Orientations are held at the shelter and are open to everybody.
Orientations are held at the shelter and are open to everybody.
Volunteers must be 18 years or older.
We always need more people willing to walk the dogs and play with the cats! The shelter has the capacity for hundreds of animals, and the shelter workers simply don't have enough time to ensure every animal gets attention every day. That's why volunteers are so important! Human interaction helps the animals release pent-up energy and reduces their stress, making them happier and more attractive to potential adopters. You really can help animals get adopted just by walking a dog or petting a cat!
To volunteer: Animal handlers must fill out a volunteer application and attend a cat and/or dog orientation. Check the top of this page for orientation details.
A majority of people coming to the shelter to look at our animals had seen them online first, at adoption websites such as Petfinder.com and AdoptAPet.com, and videos to our Youtube channel! Posting animals online is a 100% volunteer effort.
You can help with posting animals in three ways:
• Poster: This is the biggest and most important job. Animal posters collect information, photographs and sometimes video of the animals in person at the shelter. Posters upload the information online from home for the world to see. Training is provided for volunteer posters.
• Photographer: Eye-catching pictures can make a tremendous difference in the adoptability of our animals! Photographers take pictures of our animals at their own leisure so they can be posted online.
• Handler: Assist our posters and photographers and make their jobs easier by handling the animals for them. It is especially difficult to get nice pictures of a dog when you have one hand on a leash and the other on a camera!
You can help with posting animals in three ways:
• Poster: This is the biggest and most important job. Animal posters collect information, photographs and sometimes video of the animals in person at the shelter. Posters upload the information online from home for the world to see. Training is provided for volunteer posters.
• Photographer: Eye-catching pictures can make a tremendous difference in the adoptability of our animals! Photographers take pictures of our animals at their own leisure so they can be posted online.
• Handler: Assist our posters and photographers and make their jobs easier by handling the animals for them. It is especially difficult to get nice pictures of a dog when you have one hand on a leash and the other on a camera!
To volunteer: Volunteers must fill out a volunteer application and attend a cat and/or dog orientation. Check the top of this page for orientation details. After attending an orientation, contact Jenn at jennak87@yahoo.com to become a volunteer poster, photographer, or assistant.
The shelter frequently gets kittens who have been separated from their mothers before they've been weaned. These babies can't eat solid food yet and can only drink milk, which means somebody's got to feed them! The shelter staff often can't handle the amount of babies that come in on their own, so they need us to pitch in.
To volunteer: Volunteer bottlefeeders must fill out a volunteer application and attend a cat orientation before handling animals. Check the top of this page for orientation details. Contact Nicole at nicoleolivia1027@gmail.com or Sue at susanenocito@comcast.net to become a volunteer bottlefeeder.
To volunteer: Volunteer bottlefeeders must fill out a volunteer application and attend a cat orientation before handling animals. Check the top of this page for orientation details. Contact Nicole at nicoleolivia1027@gmail.com or Sue at susanenocito@comcast.net to become a volunteer bottlefeeder.
A clean animal is a happy animal! It's also a lot prettier and more appealing to potential adopters. BCAS has the capacity to kennel hundreds of animals at a time, so we can ALWAYS use more help with keeping all of our cats and dogs clean and presentable.
• Groomer: Volunteer grooming can include bathing, nail clipping, ear cleaning, fur trimming, and other hygienic upkeep.
• Handler: Assist our groomers and make their jobs much easier by handling the animals for them. We could especially use dog handlers.
• Groomer: Volunteer grooming can include bathing, nail clipping, ear cleaning, fur trimming, and other hygienic upkeep.
• Handler: Assist our groomers and make their jobs much easier by handling the animals for them. We could especially use dog handlers.
To volunteer: Volunteer groomers must fill out a volunteer application and attend a cat and/or dog orientation before handling animals. Check the top of this page for orientation details. Contact Penny at fobcas@yahoo.com to become a volunteer animal groomer.
Fosters are always very much needed, but especially so during the spring and summer months, aka "kitten season", where shelters across the country are flooded with new cats and kittens. Many shelters are unable to keep up with this influx, and must do what is necessary to continue being able to accept more animals. That's why foster homes are so important. Not only does fostering an animal free up a spot in the shelter for another animal, fostered animals are then able to live in a safe, comfortable home where they can live a much happier, more relaxed life while they wait for their forever home.
To volunteer: If you're interested in fostering cats or kittens, contact the shelter directly (contact info here). You will be required to fill out an application to foster. If you'd like to foster dogs, check out the Burlington County Animal Alliance, a local rescue organization which routinely rescues shelter dogs (including BCAS's!).
As the program grows, we have an increasing need for people to get involved in the managing of the program itself, helping coordinate the volunteers and branching out into new directions of progress in the name of the animals.
• Events Committee: We are aiming to form an Events Committee, made up of people who enjoy helping with events. Events Committee members should be willing to do at least one of the following things:
- Find and suggest opportunities for Friends of BCAS to hold or participate in events. (Click here for an example of an event we participated in.)
- Assist with the details of the event, such as acquiring food, tables, or posters, or scoping out a setup location.
- Take charge of the whole operation! Ideally we should have multiple people to rotate this duty.
• Fundraising Committee: Fundraising is a key component to a successful non-profit organization. We are aiming to form a Fundraising Committee, made up of people with the desire and ability to organize or help with fundraisers. Fundraisers can be as small as a one-time bake sale, or as large as you'd like. Fundraisers can be for money or items, or even needed services! We would love to find a few people motivated and knowledgable enough to take charge of all Friends of BCAS fundraising.
• Trainers: We would love to have more people on hand willing to train the volunteers in various ways, including:
- Hold some of our regular orientation classes, which explain the rules of animal handling at the shelter to new volunteers.
- Qualified individuals to hold classes on dog or cat handling for the volunteers.
- Train volunteers for other branches of our program that benefit the animals, such as the fine and often difficult art of animal photography.
• Volunteer Animal Advocates: It would be wonderful to have volunteers who are dedicated to being an advocate for the animals. A Volunteer Animal Advocate's goal is to find ways to get the shelter animals out of the shelter and into animal rescues, foster homes, or other places beneficial to the animals.
• <Your Idea Here>: We need leaders, people with ideas and the means to try and pull them off, to help us make Friends of BCAS all that it can be. As of writing this, there are only two of us keeping the program going. We can't do it alone forever!
To volunteer: To help with any of these things, please contact Penny at fobcas@yahoo.com or Jenn at jennak87@yahoo.com. Volunteers must attend a cat and/or dog orientation before handling animals. Check the top of this page for orientation details.
To volunteer: To help with any of these things, or any other ideas you might have, please contact Penny at fobcas@yahoo.com or Jenn at jennak87@yahoo.com. We'd love to hear from you!
• Events Committee: We are aiming to form an Events Committee, made up of people who enjoy helping with events. Events Committee members should be willing to do at least one of the following things:
- Find and suggest opportunities for Friends of BCAS to hold or participate in events. (Click here for an example of an event we participated in.)
- Assist with the details of the event, such as acquiring food, tables, or posters, or scoping out a setup location.
- Take charge of the whole operation! Ideally we should have multiple people to rotate this duty.
• Fundraising Committee: Fundraising is a key component to a successful non-profit organization. We are aiming to form a Fundraising Committee, made up of people with the desire and ability to organize or help with fundraisers. Fundraisers can be as small as a one-time bake sale, or as large as you'd like. Fundraisers can be for money or items, or even needed services! We would love to find a few people motivated and knowledgable enough to take charge of all Friends of BCAS fundraising.
• Trainers: We would love to have more people on hand willing to train the volunteers in various ways, including:
- Hold some of our regular orientation classes, which explain the rules of animal handling at the shelter to new volunteers.
- Qualified individuals to hold classes on dog or cat handling for the volunteers.
- Train volunteers for other branches of our program that benefit the animals, such as the fine and often difficult art of animal photography.
• Volunteer Animal Advocates: It would be wonderful to have volunteers who are dedicated to being an advocate for the animals. A Volunteer Animal Advocate's goal is to find ways to get the shelter animals out of the shelter and into animal rescues, foster homes, or other places beneficial to the animals.
• <Your Idea Here>: We need leaders, people with ideas and the means to try and pull them off, to help us make Friends of BCAS all that it can be. As of writing this, there are only two of us keeping the program going. We can't do it alone forever!
To volunteer: To help with any of these things, please contact Penny at fobcas@yahoo.com or Jenn at jennak87@yahoo.com. Volunteers must attend a cat and/or dog orientation before handling animals. Check the top of this page for orientation details.
• Design and maintain a website for us!
• Distribute our printable flyer, informational pamphlet, or business cards anywhere and everywhere to help spread the word! Click here to download printable versions.
• Send word out to newspapers, websites, and other media about the good we're doing at the shelter.
• Become a guest writer for our blog! Write about anything involving animals, animal shelters, volunteering, or related subjects. (Email Jenn at jennak87@yahoo.com if you're interested in this one.)
• Recruit your friends and family to volunteer!
• Donate to our cause!
• <Your idea here>. We'd love to hear your ideas on new ways to expand or improve our program. Especially if you intend on helping!
• Distribute our printable flyer, informational pamphlet, or business cards anywhere and everywhere to help spread the word! Click here to download printable versions.
• Send word out to newspapers, websites, and other media about the good we're doing at the shelter.
• Become a guest writer for our blog! Write about anything involving animals, animal shelters, volunteering, or related subjects. (Email Jenn at jennak87@yahoo.com if you're interested in this one.)
• Recruit your friends and family to volunteer!
• Donate to our cause!
• <Your idea here>. We'd love to hear your ideas on new ways to expand or improve our program. Especially if you intend on helping!
To volunteer: To help with any of these things, or any other ideas you might have, please contact Penny at fobcas@yahoo.com or Jenn at jennak87@yahoo.com. We'd love to hear from you!
