Volunteering at the sanctuary is a fantastic opportunity to be part of something really special. For giving up your time we can promise you one thing, small pieces of your heart will remain with the many rescue animals you’ll work with and help. Our residents will be grateful for any time you have to spare – this goes a long way in improving the quality of life we can offer to them whilst in our care.

We have a variety of ways you can volunteer your time to helping the animals in our care:

• Dog Walking – take some time out of your day to help us exercise the dogs in our care. With an average of 30 dogs in our kennels and the goal of giving them two walks a day each, this equates to 30 hours of dog walking every day – something we cannot achieve without the help of our volunteers.
• Kennel Cleaning – the first job of the day, this role starts at 8am to keep our kennels clean and cosy for all of our dogs.
• Cattery Duties – sign up to a morning or afternoon shift in our cattery, covering the cleaning duties, feeding and spending time socialising and interacting with our cats.
• Reception – sign up to a shift in our reception, welcoming visitors, answering phone calls and arranging appointments.
• Fundraising – we are looking to build a fundraising team to focus on collections and outreach events.
• Charity Shop – we have two charity shops, one in Antrim town and one in Larne, that are almost entirely run by volunteers.

Your volunteer journey at our Sanctuary will begin with a Meet & Greet Induction Day here at the Sanctuary for a Talk & Tour about all things volunteering. On the day, you will be able to fill in a Volunteer Application Form if you’d like to join our team. After this, you will receive a Volunteer Starter Pack and you will be invited to a Practical Session with a staff member to get you started with us in whichever role you are interested in.

If you are interested in volunteering at one of our charity shops you can pick up a volunteer application form in the shop and have a chat with our retail manager about how to get started.

Our upcoming Talk & Tour Induction dates at the Sanctuary for this summer are now full.

We will announce the rest of the induction dates for the end of this year at the end of summer here on our website and through our socials – check back here in August for more details!

*Please note that due to our insurance policy, all of our volunteers must be over the age of 18.

We also offer Work Experience Placements for students over the age of 18 in need of animal care experience as well as Corporate Volunteer Days here at our Sanctuary.

If you have any further questions about volunteering, a corporate volunteer day for your team or about carrying out a work experience placement with us please fill in the contact form below.