Help us help the animals!

Seminole County Animal Services has joined forces with the Seminole Community Volunteer Program to allow citizens to volunteer their time at the Animal Services Shelter. Volunteers must be 18 years or older. To become a volunteer or learn more about volunteering contact
Diane Gagliano: Program Coordinator at Animal Services 407-665-5208 DGagliano@seminolecountyfl.gov You can also stop by the shelter and pick up a volunteer application. Or contact Nancy Roth at S.C.V.P. by calling 407-323-4440, Ext. 2. All volunteers will be sign up through the Seminole Community Volunteer Program. Listed below are several ways in which your talents will help us help the animals.

TYPES OF VOLUNTEERS

Would you love to help, but don’t have much experience handling animals?

Office Partners: Assist with clerical duties such as filing, putting together information packets, making copies, and other office type duties. Becoming a Greeter in our lobby and assisting the front office staff in assessing the customers’ needs is one of our most important office partner duties. Greeters would be the customer’s first contact when they enter the shelter. Finding out exactly what services the customers need, and directing them to the proper area or person who can meet those needs, is incredibly helpful in keeping customers flowing efficiently through the lobby and shelter areas. There is always something new and different to do if you become an Animal Services Office Partner.

Do you have some animal experience, and want to work hands on with the dogs and cats?

Paw Partners: Work hands on with the resident shelter dogs and cats.
All dogs and cats at the shelter need some one-on-one care. The dogs love to be walked and exercised. A brush and some TLC do wonders in making a dogs stay here more enjoyable. Cats love to play and need some exercise, too. Brushing them or simply holding a cat in your lap and petting it will make a cats day. A little love shown for these animals goes a very long way in keeping them healthy and happy.

As a Paw Partner you can volunteer in many areas: Turning out and exercising dogs, bathing and grooming the dogs or cats, assisting in off site adoption events, and becoming an adoption counselor and assisting customers in choosing the best dog or cat for adoption.

Paw Partners also include volunteers who are experienced dog trainers or behaviorists and want to work with our dogs and teach them some basic manners that will help in getting them adopted. A well mannered dog that will sit for a potential adopter and walk nicely on a leash has a much better chance of adoption than a dog that does not know a few basic commands. Therefore training of our shelter dogs is very important in increasing the number of animals we are able to adopt out. The shelter also gets in some wonderful dogs that are terribly shy. These dogs need one on one time to just be around a person that will help them get over their fears and help them build more confidence thus making them more adoptable.

With usually over 50 dogs available for adoption on any given day the services our Paw Partners can provide are Priceless.

Do you really want to volunteer but don’t have a lot of spare time on your hands?

Project Partners: Time is something all of us seem to not have enough of!! But if your heart is still in volunteering then becoming a project partner is for you. The shelter has several events throughout the year that require a lot of volunteers. But these are events are for 1 day only. So if you have only a few hours to spare or perhaps a whole day working as a volunteer for 1 of our special events is not only rewarding but a whole lot of fun.

Our big annual events are the Adopt-A-Thon in March: Tag Day in May; Responsible Pet Ownership Day in September; and Home 4 The Holidays in December. We also so several small scale events during the year that a Project Partner can be involved in.

So whether you’re a “dog person” or a “cat person” or just someone who wants to help and make a difference in the life of a shelter animal, we look forward to having you join our team of volunteers at Seminole County Animal Services.