Volunteers for the Kenai Animal Shelter will have their first orientation of new procedures in June after the shelter took a short break from allowing volunteer activities.
Chief Animal Control Officer said there are a couple changes to what is needed from volunteers.
Chambers: “It’s going to start with the application process and then just informal interviews, the first volunteer orientation is actually tentatively scheduled for early June. They’re going to occur several times throughout the year as needed and they’re probably going to be first in class orientation and then after that in class portion, which might be about an hour or so, we will actually go over to shelter for a tour of the shelter as well as some on the job animal handling.”
She said the changes were an effort to bring the shelter up to national standards as far as training and volunteer programs.
Earlier this year a volunteer was bit while trying to place a dog back in its kennel.
Chambers: “I think there was probably a handful of things but that was definitely one of them. That incident is something we are hoping to prevent in the future, of course animals are unpredictable and there are times that we don’t have indicators. So this training will hopefully assist volunteers in being safe as well as staff in informing volunteers.”
Chambers said the exact date for the first orientation will be announced soon and those interested in participating should get applications in by 12 (noon) on Wednesday, May 27.