The RedRover Responders volunteer experience
July 17th, 2023
By Beth Gammie, Director of Field Services
The RedRover Responders program offers some of the most exciting and meaningful experiences that animal lovers can have! From taking care of animals evacuating from natural disasters, caring for dogs rescued from puppy mills, to helping domestic violence survivors bring their pets with them when they are able to escape abuse – RedRover provides a variety of opportunities to make a difference for people and their animals.
Our Responders program is fueled by volunteers. We have over 4,000 volunteers nationwide in the U.S. and in Canada. We train our volunteers through a self-paced online course that teaches volunteers about emergency animal sheltering, how to work well with others, our commitment to compassion, inclusion, and equity, as well as an orientation to RedRover and the various deployment opportunities for volunteers.
And what a variety of volunteer experiences we offer! In addition to emergency animal sheltering in natural disasters and cruelty seizures (such as hoarding cases and puppy mills), volunteers can work on building pet-friendly housing at domestic violence shelters, enabling these shelters to accept survivors with pets and support our goal to help 25% of DV shelters in the U.S. become pet friendly by 2025. We are also dedicated to working in underserved communities, helping dogs be free from chains by building enclosures for them, and working with spay/neuter and vaccination clinics to help pet owners get access to basic veterinary care for their animals.
Our volunteers have told us that the work they do as Responders volunteers is the most meaningful and impactful animal work they have done. On top of that, our deployments are just plain fun! Being around others committed to helping animals helps friendships form easily. Our team leaders ensure that many of the details around food, housing, and schedule are covered – all you need to do is get trained, show up, and have a blast doing the hardest and most fun animal work you’ve ever done! Come join us.
