Operations Volunteer Roles

Glasgwegians unite for pets in need and their families! Do you have a background in animal welfare or human services? Do you have lived experience as a pet guardian or someone who has sought adoption in the past? Glasgow's pet families need you!

The vision for Glasgow Pet Collective is to create a social justice oriented animal welfare organisation to support Glaswegians and their pets. Our approach will be community informed and will develope innovative programs based on community need. I plan to launch the organisation, with a co-founder or two, so we can help with re-homing pets ASAP because it is a service that is in urgent need.

The role:

Glasgow Pet Collective is seeking one to four co-founders to formulate best practices, policies and innovative programs on which to build the charity. Co-founders will also help to secure charity status, apply for funding, connect with pet parents who need to rehome their dog, cat or other small animal, market pets for adoption, screen adopters and recruit and train volunteers. The scope of the founder's role will be based on their experience, expertise and interest. I anticipate 5 hours of work weekly in the intial phases of set up and would hope that at some point in the not too distant future, we can receive funding to pay for part or (hopefully) full-time staff. As a note, I am a professional grant writer so I am hopeful we can get funding sooner than later!

The problem:

Pet relinquishment requests to animal rescue / shelter organisations have increased up to 60% in 2023. Organisations like Dog's Trust, SSPCA, Cats Protection and Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home are full to the brink and are simply not able to accommodate the deluge of requests for help.

In the mean time, cats and dogs live in homes that are not conducive to either their or their human guardians' wellbeing. Cats are living in homes with co-occupants that cause them great stress, and potentially exhibiting destructive behaviours due to their distress. Dogs with separation anxiety are living in homes who cannot spend enough time with them. And humans are struggling to feed their families and their pets at the same time.

In most cases, human support services that allow the human/animal family to remain intact are the ideal response to these issues. Keeping families together highly advantageous to the wellbeing of all family members - two and four-legged. AND financial assistance, accessiblity of services and/or modifications to the home environment can solve the issues that often lead pet parents to seek rehoming services.

Pet food banks are critical to ensuring dedicated families keep their pets fed without jeopardising the needs of their human families. Training and behaviour professionals can help dogs cope with separation. Accessible veterinary care can allow families with financial constraints to keep their pets instead of relinquishing for hope of the animal getting the help they need.

About me:

My name is Caitlin Mendoza-Price. I am an animal welfare professional from Los Angeles. I spent the last 10 years working in feline lifesaving programs, fundraising and grant writing. Admittedly, the landscape and needs of animals in Scotland is largely different than the one I have built most of my expertise within. 

However, after two years in Scotland, and lessons learnt from conferences and conversations with professionals, pet parents and prospective adopters, I've come to understand that the Scotland is in great need of increased rehoming and human animal support services.