The Pembina Valley Humane Society (PVHS) has put out an urgent call for more volunteers. fostering an animal allows the shelter to help more animals by adding to their capacity, volunteers on the fundraising committee help fund the organization and its many needs, and right now, there are twelve empty chore shifts on the weekly chore schedule, according to Shelter Manager Jennifer Young.
"We need people to come and help make these dogs and cats survive, and do well, and thrive in the shelter. That is what we're looking for right now."
Young said the number of chore volunteers regularly fluctuates and is grateful for the ones who dedicate their time, once a week or are casual volunteers or the ones who can do more.
"We have quite a few volunteers actually that I am in awe of. They come in, do their shift, but they spend so much time with the animals and make sure that they get 15-20 minutes of exercise, all of them. And that could be 10 dogs that they're doing."
There are three chore volunteer shifts: 9am, 4pm and 9pm which is the "Good-night" shift, letting the animals out one last time of the day and saying, "good-night." Right now, twelve of them are not filled.
Young noted, shifts can be once a week at the same time or can be different depending on the volunteer’s schedule.
While the need is greatest on the chore side of volunteering, Young said there is another area that is needing support as well.
"We need volunteers that are interested in helping us with fundraising and helping out at events and everything like that too. Apparently, that group of people is starting to dwindle. We don't know why, but if we could get people that are even interested in helping out with the occasional thing like Corn & Apple Festival or Comedy Night, things like that, that would be fantastic as well."
Volunteering is very rewarding. She described one of the volunteers who comes in as often as she can.
"The dogs know her, they love her. She is good at what she does, and she makes sure that they are taken care of so well. And then when she's done with them, and done playing with them, and walking them, she'll go and spend time with the cats as well. Volunteers that offer so much of their time like that. I'm in awe because they give their own time to come and do that for us and for the animals, and that makes a huge difference because it does make the animals more socialized and makes them more adoptable."
The shelter is grateful for the many foster homes that take animals into their own homes allowing PVHS to help more animals, people are welcome to apply for this role as well. Learn more about volunteer opportunities at the Pembina Valley Humane Society on the website.
In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, PembinaValleyOnline encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the PembinaValleyOnline app.
