Elle Evard, volunteer at the local humane society and senior, first began volunteering at the Humane Society for Hamilton County in December of 2024. She said she started to volunteer at the shelter because she loves animals and enjoyed spending time with them, particularly the felines. 

“I’m more of a cat person,” Evard said, “I really wanted to be around (cats) more often, and I wanted to be able to kind of do my part and really help out.”

According to Evard, the volunteers often spend time helping out with tasks around the shelter, cleaning dog kennels and socializing with the cats. They also have the opportunity to help make sure the food bowls are sanitized and make sure they have clean bedding, as well as processing donations received and cleaning the play area located on the outside of the shelters.

Evard is one among many of the Humane Society for Hamilton County’s hard-working volunteers. According to the Humane Society for Hamilton County, there are almost 1,000 volunteers working at the numerous shelters located through Hamilton County. These volunteers perform a wide array of tasks around the shelters to help the various 4,000 animals in the locations around Hamilton County.

According to Caitlin Wesley, the volunteer programs manager of the Humane Society for Hamilton County, said the volunteer job is a great way to meet new people from different backgrounds, schools and areas around the county, as well as socializing with the animals present.

“You get to meet a lot of different people from different backgrounds,” Wesley said. “You might be able to get a look at what a job in an animal care field might look like.” 

Evard said she agrees with this statement, stating that volunteering at the shelter has taught her to become more humble and more empathetic toward others.

“It teaches you a lot, too. It teaches you to do things for other people or animals without really getting anything in return. You become more humble, and you learn the importance of caring for other beings,” Evard said. “A lot of people don’t think that animals really don’t have as many rights as humans, but, really, we’re similar in a lot of ways, just different species.”

Mallory Wingenroth,  who is also a volunteer at the Humane Society for Hamilton County and senior, has been volunteering at the shelter since late May. She said she believed that the volunteering job was a great opportunity to see what a job in the field would look like.

“I really would like to become a veterinarian and study pre-vet in college. I also just love animals and I’ve always grown up with pets,” Wingenroth said, “So just being around, I love to volunteer and I especially love animals. Just that opportunity sounded like a really good idea.”

However, there are some downsides of volunteering at the shelter, such as an overloaded schedule. According to Evard, the Humane Society is “a nonprofit, it’s a non-kill shelter, so they don’t really have that ability to have so many staff members, so they rely heavily on volunteers. So when a lot of people don’t have that time, they don’t feel that need for it, then they just don’t go and do it.”

Wingenroth also said that managing time was a big problem for her, because many student volunteers have a hard time being able to volunteer during the school year. 

Despite these downsides, there are many benefits of volunteering at the shelter. According to Wingenroth, the shelter has advantages such as, “I get volunteer hours, but more importantly, I think it just boosts my serotonin and I love working with animals.”

Wesley said working with animals gives an individual “the good feeling of knowing that you’re making a difference to not just the animals, but also the staff who care for these animals and the people who down the road will adopt the cat or dog that you helped to care for.”