Volunteering at an animal shelter for a 9 yo

[Anonymous]

Arlington County animal shelter allows volunteers as young as 10 as long as they are accompanied by a parent when volunteering.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you very much for all the responses.
All good suggestions.
From all the feedback dog-walking and volunteer with Petsmart sounds most realistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 9 yo DD wants to volunteer at an animal or an adoption center basically any place where animals need help.
We have checked Humane Society and ASPCA - both require their volunteers to be 18 and older.
Can anyone recommend where to go? We are in MoCo.

TIA

He wasn't 11, but my son volunteered with K9 lifesavers walking dogs, and talking to people at rescue events. They required a parent to stay, but he got to do a lot of things that felt like helping to him.

Ooops, sorry. He WAS 11. He WASN'T 9. However, that's only because we moved to the area when he was 11, so didn't ask earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can't find a shelter that will let her volunteer, you might try a stable. Some stables will let young people volunteer to groom horses, etc. You might also find a stable that will let her trade barn work for riding lessons.

good point but 9 is too young. what can a 9-yr old do? i don't want any kids running around thinking it's a play ground.

She's not. She can be given strict expectations and she can play with animals who don't have behaviour problems.

It would be a great way to learn compassion,

Keep looking for a place, OP.

And what happens if OP's kid gets hurt?

There are no guarantees that she won't get hurt if she's working with animals (or walking down the street), but volunteering at a shelter or stable will teach her responsible behavior around the animals that will minimize her chances of getting hurt. If this stresses you out, you should probably keep her away from animals.

(I used to ride my horse bareback in the fields by myself, and we'd gallop hard as I pretended to be Elizabeth Taylor on the Pie. I also used to jump him over higher fences than my parents permitted when they weren't around, sometimes bareback. I've been kicked, stepped on, and I've fallen off a number of times, and broke two bones...but I had a glorious childhood and that time makes up some of my best memories. I'm glad I wasn't kept under constant watch, or kept indoors because my parents feared injury. I'm now more disciplined and confident from growing up with horses, I think. It makes me sad that my children don't have that).

I think you missed PP's point. I think PP was talking about shelter's liability burden and not questioning lesson learned/value added from volunteering/working with animals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 9 yo DD wants to volunteer at an animal or an adoption center basically any place where animals need help.
We have checked Humane Society and ASPCA - both require their volunteers to be 18 and older.
Can anyone recommend where to go? We are in MoCo.

TIA

He wasn't 11, but my son volunteered with K9 lifesavers walking dogs, and talking to people at rescue events. They required a parent to stay, but he got to do a lot of things that felt like helping to him.

According to the emails, K-9 now requires that handlers be 13. My kids volunteered younger in the past as well.