The needs vary between shelters, but you will likely be able to help with tasks that will keep the rabbits happy, healthy, and more adoptable:

• Socialize the rabbits, by hanging out and teaching them trust. (Holding them is not the goal.)
• Clean the rabbits’ enclosures.
• Groom them, including brushings and nail trims.
• Bag hay.
• Wash greens.
• Feed the rabbits.
• Help with laundry. (There’s always a lot of blankets to wash!)
• Sanitize litterboxes and other items.
• Offer to provide enrichment, such as toys and hidey boxes.
• Become an adoption counselor.
• Be a foster parent! (More on that below.)

Shelter volunteering usually requires making a regular scheduled time commitment. This is because the shelter needs to be able to depend on their volunteers fulfilling specific roles.

Online volunteer options may also be available, such as responding to adoption inquiries and rabbit-related questions.

Let the shelter know if you have specialized skills such as photography, marketing, or social media that you are willing to share. They may need your assistance in these areas:

• Take photos of the shelter’s rabbits for their website, marketing, and social media.
• Take videos of the rabbits being their real selves.
• Write content for shelter marketing, social media, or educational materials.
• Provide narrations for videos.
• Write profiles for the adoptable rabbits: What is each rabbit’s individual personality?

A perceptive cage/enclosure card:

• Educates staff and the pubic about that specific rabbit
• Helps shelter staff better know how to approach each rabbit
• Helps find that rabbit the right home with the right person or family

• Help with outreach events.
• Counsel potential adopters on special adoption days.
• Make toys for the rabbits.
• If you have access to a car or other vehicle, you may be needed on occasion to transport rabbits to/from the shelter to foster homes and other appointments.
• Purchase and donate fresh greens for the rabbits–since shelters often don’t have the budget to buy greens. (Check to find out what the shelter needs first!)
• Spread awareness by reposting adoptable rabbits on your personal social media.
• Hand out shelter materials at high-profile places in your community, such as coffee shops, community centers and churches, grocery stores, etc.
• Purchase supplies for the rabbits from the shelter’s Amazon or Chewy Wish Lists.
• Share links on forums to HRS articles on proper rabbit care, health needs, and behavior.
• Sign up to be available to help out in emergency situations such as when there is a large confiscation.

If you have the time, space, and bandwidth, consider fostering a rabbit for your local shelter, rescue group, or HRS chapter! Fostering provides:

• A shelter or rescue the capacity to rescue additional rabbits that they may not have space for onsite.
• Rescued rabbits time away from the stress of a shelter, which is a public space and can be quite stressful. (Fostering a shelter rabbit is kinda like going to camp for a few weeks).
• A rabbit time to regain their health or come out of their shell (especially after a traumatic past).
• A way for you to live with a rabbit for short times, during those periods when you are traveling frequently or not able to settle down with a forever friend.
• A great way to find out whether a rabbit is a good fit for you, your family, and your lifestyle before you make a lifetime, 10-year commitment to adopt.

Many shelters and rescues will provide you with the supplies you need to get started, such as an x-pen, litterbox, litter, pellets, hay, pellets, and water bowl.

** Please note that not every shelter offers fostering as an option. As a shelter volunteer, you may be able to gain enough trust that they would let you foster, and perhaps a foster program will follow.