Volunteering

Athenspets is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to helping the needy animals of Athens-Clarke County Animal Services. We are the online presence for the shelter animals and help get the word out when the shelter needs more volunteers for its activities. All volunteers who will be going to the shelter need to complete the shelter’s volunteer orientation & abide by all shelter rules as any time spent at the shelter or handling shelter animals is as a shelter volunteer. Contact Animal Services for more information about volunteering & the orientation schedule! If you’re not local, you can still help! Some of the volunteer activities that can be done remotely (for example, networking our animals and helping raise funds) are obvious; others (like being in charge of tracking sponsorships, updating the website with new animals, and updating Facebook) are not.

SHELTER VOLUNTEERS

Athens-Clarke County shelter volunteer – The dogs, cats, and humans at the shelter appreciate volunteers who can socialize and play with the animals any hours they are open. Some dogs and cats are frightened and stressed when they first arrive, and just a little one-on-one time with a person makes them feel so much better. Other dogs and cats are happy and friendly, but build up excess energy being stuck in a dog run or cat kennel nearly 24/7. Even a few minutes of exercise and playtime calms them down and will entertain you! If you think volunteering at the shelter might be depressing – just try it, you’ll be surprised. Dogs and cats live in the moment, so every happy moment they have with you is ‘forever’ to them. Call Animal Services for more information. **Please note: Many of the shelter animals have been neglected prior to impound and it is unlikely many of them are up-to-date on vaccinations (including rabies vaccinations). Take care in handling the animals, wash your hands thoroughly before leaving the shelter, and change your clothes when you get home to avoid spreading any diseases.**

Shelter foster – Athens-Clarke County now has a shelter foster program! Fosters give the shelter animals get a break from the stress of shelter living and help make them more adoptable by providing information about the animals’ personality when away from the shelter. Whether it’s for a single night or until an animal is adopted, shelter fosters greatly increased the life-saving capacity of the shelter. To apply to become a shelter foster, please complete the online form, schedule a time for orientation through the link you receive by email in response to submitting the form, and send a “home visit” video (complete instructions on ACCAS’s shelter foster page.

Doggy Day Out Volunteer – Athens-Clarke County has a doggy day out program where approved volunteers can give shelter animals a day away from the shelter. This is a great way to help the shelter whether you want to take a shelter dog on a hike, to a private dog park, or on an adventure. A valid drivers license and proof of insurance is required for all Doggy Day Out Volunteers. To become a Doggy Day Out Volunteer, please sign up for a shelter volunteer orientation session and contact the shelter at (706) 613-3540 or email AnimalServicesVolunteer@accgov.com.   

ATHENSPETS VOLUNTEERS

Athenspets’s in-person volunteers are trained as shelter volunteers (see above info on getting trained) but help with additional items organized by Athenspets. To become an in-person Athenspets volunteer, please complete the shelter volunteer orientation. To help in-person or remotely, join the Athenspets Volunteer Discussion Group on Facebook. (Be sure to answer the group questions/agree to the rules; because of past issues, we cannot accept your request to join without this information.)

Athenspets Advocate – Athenspets Advocates are shelter volunteers who take it to the next level by becoming a cheerleader for one or two harder to place animals at a time. These volunteers visit the shelter at least once each week and take photos of and record notes about an animal to whom they have committed, sharing the info on social media throughout the following week. Advocates serve a valuable function by getting photos of the shelter animals in front of a new audience, telling stories about the animals from a new perspective, and keeping a close eye on the shelter animals so that shelter staff knows as soon as possible if there’s a problem.

Information needed in Advocate posts: A photo or video and a sentence or two about what makes this pet special. Please make your post public and tag Athenspets so we can help publicize your Advocate animal! Additional information to include:

          https://www.accgov.com/257/Available-Pets
          Athens-Clarke County Animal Services
          125 Buddy Christian Way
          Athens, Georgia
          706-613-3540

Outreach Event Volunteer – Athenspets organizes weekly outreach events to introduce the community to ACCAS, Athenspets, and a handful of shelter dogs. We need volunteers to help make these events happen, from acting as lead to just showing up. Recurring event locations include Petsense – Athens (in the same shopping center as Space Kroger) and the Bishop Park Farmer’s Market. Volunteers are needed to bring event supplies and dogs to and from the events and act as handlers and advocates.

Photo & story volunteer – Athenspets volunteers supply photos and stories both for the shelter website and for the Athenspets Facebook page. and how great our animals are! Shelter volunteers opting to help in this way are trained on the photo & story needs and focus their shelter volunteer time at least twice a month on the newly impounded animals that need updated photos and biographies written.

Crossposting – If you can’t be a shelter volunteer, you can still help our dogs and cats get adopted by publicizing the posts from folks who are shelter volunteers on social media, NextDoor, listservs, etc. and reaching out to rescues with which you have contacts. You may copy our pictures and stories to use for finding the animals homes while they’re at the shelter or for success stories – no copyright worries here! Be sure your posts include the pet’s name and a link to the Athens-Clarke County Animal Services website so people know how to find more information about the animal if interested. Dogs and cats do not stay at the shelter for long, so the information must be timely.

Fundraising – Athenspets funds needed medical care for the shelter animals to get them healthy and enrichment resources to keep them happy, covers the cost of spaying & neutering pets in the community that have been identified as otherwise being at high risk of adding to pet overpopulation, and coordinates sending animals on lifesaving transports including fronting the costs. We need all the help we can get–more money means more lives saved! We appreciate Facebook fundraisers for our benefit, donation drives, and monetary donations. To help with this important activity, please email donations@athenspets.net!

Website Help – Athenspets does not have a professional web designer or someone to make more technical updates as needed. DO you have skills in this area you would be willing to offer? If so, please email us at info@athenspets.net today!