Has anyone ever done one if those animal volunteering holidays?

[Hamandcheesebaguette]

Well... not really a holiday per se.

After watching a documentary last night about a woman who rescued pangolins (new favourite animal) I remembered that as a teenager I always promised myself I'd so one of these volunteering at an animal rehabilitation centres "holidays". Life got in the way and I forgot they even existed until last night.

I've seen one in Costa Rica, for 2 weeks volunteering at a centre who rehabilitates sloths, anteaters etc and I really want to do it before I'm 30 but there's something niggling putting me off booking it.

Has anyone ever done anything like this and what was it like? Would you recommend?

Bump

People who work at such centres are dedicated and are there for the long haul; not simply for people who arrive and leave after just a mere two weeks. What training and or actual experience do you have as well, if you do not have the necessary skill sets you could actually be doing more harm than good.

Why not volunteer for a local UK based animal shelter here instead if you want to help animals?.

I did 8 weeks in a turtle rescue/breeding charity in Costa Rica after graduation.

Amazing experience. Glad I did it.

There's ways you can help here too, have a look at conservation holidays in the UK.

What Attila said.

You aren’t really volunteering or adding any value to the animals as it is unlikely that you have the skills and are only there for a short period of time. It’s merely another type of tourism, with a bit of a feel good factor for you.

There are many other ways you can actually make a difference closer to home.

The BTCV is the place to start here. Volunteered as a teen...mostly day stuff removing invasive species from woods etc and cleaning ponds but the holidays are great.

Not sure that this is going to help or not but my DH is Director of a well known international animal welfare organisation and has worked quite a bit with big Travel companies on development of ethical animal welfare policies. They do offer Interational volunteering opportunities at sanctuaries but they're very limited in number, there's vetting of interested parties and the actual work itself is largely manual with very managed & limited interaction with animals. The reality is, an operation run ethically is going to be one that doesn't offer you a huge amount of opportunity to have 'one on one' experiences because honestly, it's not in a wild animals best interests. There are however some very good ones - just use your common sense when vetting them though! Anywhere that also does any kind of animal show or animal rides or 'selfie' opportunities should be a bit of a no-no. As above - not sure this does help!

Sorry - cannot help regarding volunteering but, like many, have never seen a pangolin. They are described in my field guide to the wild animals of East Africa but they are clearly now virtually impossible to see. I thought the programme was amazing.

Not very exotic but you do make a difference.... I worked at the Elephant Nature Sanctuary in Chiang Mai with rescued street dogs, you get to walk them, socialise them and longer term volunteers get to give them meds etc. I helped walk the paralysed dogs who had wheel chairs and also helped out with the cats. You get full board, vegan food is amazing. The first week you share with three people but you get a small house after the second week with a dog who lives with you. It's less than two hundred pounds a week. There's also volunteering with the elephants as well but I think that is more manual jobs.

If getting hands-on with animals is what you want, I think you might be disappointed. You have to ask what skills you bring and why it is in the animal's interests to have you touch them. Also whether organising and supervising volunteers costs the organisation more than the value of the work offered. They may offer it as a paid-for package to raise funds to spend on other work, rather than because your work is actually useful. You have to ask whether they could pay a local person to do it for less.

There are animal sanctuaries in the UK you can volunteer for, fundraise for, or you can foster cats etc.

There are conservation organisations you can volunteer for, at home and abroad e.g. BTCV here, Earthwatch (you volunteer as a research assistant, your fee pays for the project to happen).

I think I'd be tempted to separate the volunteering aspect from the holiday. So volunteer here, then choose as amazing holiday that is as eco-friendly and ethical as possible and allows an opportunity to see animals in the wild. The tourist economy is really important as an incentive to keep some animal populations alive in the wild and can help pay to protect them from poachers, for example.