Volunteer

Emancipet relies on the ongoing support of volunteers who help us to maintain our daily operations and expand our services in the Austin area. We are happy to have a diverse and dedicated group of volunteers who work in various capacities to help us fulfill our mission. Volunteers are currently needed in the areas listed below. Please contact our volunteer coordinator, Carrie Voss at carrie.voss@emancipet.org to get started or receive more information. Volunteers who give 15 hours or more per month receive a 15% discount on our services!

Greeters:

We need greeters both at our stationary clinic and at the mobile unit when it is out of the Austin area. Do you live in one of the towns we visit and want to help out? If you can donate just a couple of hours in the morning and/or evening to help greet and inform clients dropping off and/or picking up their pets, we need your help!! If you live in the Austin area, we need help at our stationary clinic as well. This is a great volunteer opportunity for seniors, families, or anyone who has limited time/travel to offer.

Free Day "Wranglers":

Our mobile clinic goes to community centers in East Austin every Friday and Saturday to provide free spay/neuter surgeries on a first come-first served basis. The mobile clinic arrives at 8 a.m., but most clients begin arriving as early as 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. to secure a spot in line. Free day "wranglers" arrive at our East Austin locations at 6am to establish and maintain a sign-in sheet for clients. "Wranglers" hand out paperwork and answer client questions about EmanciPET policies and spay/neuter in general. This volunteer position involves a lot of interaction with our clients, some of who are non-English speakers. Basic conversational Spanish is helpful for this position but is not required.

Kennel Tech:

Our stationary clinic–EmanciPET World Headquarters– goes through about 16 loads of laundry a day! Volunteer kennel techs are needed to do laundry, clean out cages, clean and sterilize surgical instruments, and generally help us keep our clinic tidy. Volunteer kennel techs help us out anytime between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Busiest hours are from 10am to 6pm, Monday through Saturday. Hours for this volunteer position are extremely flexible and can be arranged to fit your schedule.

Animal Care:

After surgery, our technicians monitor animals as they awaken from anesthesia. Our animal care volunteers help keep them comfortable during this time, clean up after them if they have accidents, and generally make them feel better. This position requires at least some prior experience handling animals, since pets are sometimes confused and scared when they wake up after surgery. There is a lot of training involved in this position, so we also ask that volunteers interested in this position commit to at least one day (3-6 hours) per week for 2 months.

Clerical:

We perform approximately 180 surgeries a day, and a certain amount of paperwork is associated with each pet— vaccination certificates, intake forms, surgery notes, microchip paperwork and so on. That adds up to a lot of paperwork! Our clerical volunteers help us keep up with it all by filing and organizing paperwork, assembling discharge packets, preparing rabies certificates, etcetera. Clerical volunteers work flexible hours as arranged with the volunteer coordinator. Clerical assistance is needed at our stationary clinic and on our mobile clinic. Computer skills are helpful but not necessary.

Receptionist:

We try to call back all of our clients to remind them of their appointments and after surgery to see how their pets are doing. With nearly 900 pets a week coming through our different facilities, you can imagine the number of phone calls we have to make. Receptionist volunteers help us make those calls out of our headquarters Monday through Saturday. These calls can also be made from home if you have Excel and can receive the call lists via email the day before.

Education & Awareness:

Helping pets have better lives starts in a cultural change towards believing that pets are more than something we should use when convenient - and toss away when they aren’t. Our awareness volunteers go into communities to hand out flyers, hang up signs, talk to the people, and basically educate the public about EmanciPET and animal welfare in general. This can happen on weekends, evenings, days, whenever.