Volunteers are absolutely essential to Oakland Animal Services. As an OAS volunteer you will not only benefit from a rewarding and fun experience, but also have a significant impact on the lives of the animals and people in our community. Volunteers are indeed the driving force behind OAS.
OAS volunteers take on many different roles. For some volunteer positions, we provide the training required, while other volunteer positions require previous experience and an existing skillset. All volunteer positions do have minimum requirements to ensure that volunteers are an appropriate fit for the role.
We are so excited that you are considering volunteering at OAS!
Note that at this time, we do not have a youth volunteer program and can only accept volunteers over the age of 18 yrs.
Ready to help? Here’s how.
Volunteer Position Descriptions
All volunteer positions require at least some training which are described in the position descriptions below. All volunteers are expected to be: reliable, able to follow and remember rules and instructions, and treat people and animals with respect.
Animal-handling volunteer positions:
- Cat Volunteer
- Dog Volunteer (Big dogs)
- Dog Volunteer (Small dogs)
- Rabbit Volunteer
- Pigeon Volunteer
- Kitten Foster Program – Veterinary Support Volunteer
Non-animal-handling volunteer positions:
These positions may be standalone (i.e. it is your primary volunteer role), or can be added on to an animal-handling position (e.g. a Dog Volunteer may also train to be an Enrichment Volunteer). These positions generally require fewer hours of training than animal-handling positions, so if you are ready to get started right away, one of these positions might be the right fit!
- Adoption (paperwork) Processing Volunteer
- Event Greeter
- Enrichment (Dog) Volunteer
- Kitten Transport Volunteer (some minimal animal-handling requirements)
- Kitten Foster Program – Supplies Support Volunteer
- Dog Foster Program – Supplies Support Volunteer
- Dog Foster Program – Marketing Support Volunteer
- Sewing cat hammocks (see instructions here). No training needed. Email us here to arrange a time to drop off completed cat hammocks
Group Volunteering
We are not able to accommodate large group projects on site at this time. Your group can still support us by doing a donation drive – visit our Wishlist for ideas.
Donate
If you don’t have time to volunteer, you can still help Oakland’s animals by making a donation to the Friends of Oakland Animal Services or making an in-kind donation from our Wishlist.
Our volunteers truly make a difference. Watch volunteer groomer Cindy create one of her “Trans-fur-mations”:
