RSPCA QLD

As an animal welfare organisation, RSPCA Qld have a variety of different volunteer roles involving hands-on animal interaction.

These roles are incredibly rewarding, but be warned - keeping animals happy and healthy requires a lot of cleaning! It can be physically demanding, and we need assistance every day of the year - whether it's sunshine or rain, a public holiday or a weekday. Of course, it's not just cleaning; there's plenty of opportunities for enrichment activities too. 

Volunteer roles can involve working with:

• Domestic animals (dogs, cats, pocket pets, or farmyard) at one of our Animal Care Centres
• Domestic animals recovering from illness or medical procedures at the Domestic Hospital or clinic
• Wildlife animals recovering or rehabilitating in preparation for release to the wild, or to a wildlife carer for further rehabilitation

If you're keen to volunteer in an animal care role, please have a look at our current vacancies and submit an application.

There are many areas within the RSPCA where you can volunteer to make a difference in the lives of animals. RSPCA believes that education is the key to changing hearts, minds and behaviours across the community.

Education and Community roles include a variety of volunteer opportunities such as, assisting at community action days or delivering presentations to schools and community groups about responsible pet ownership and animal welfare.

Through these events, RSPCA aims to engage and inspire local communities to become socially conscious animal communities.

Examples of activities that you can get involved with are:

• Proactive community activations, aiming to support animal welfare within communities
• Education visits (Schools and community)
• Regional community events - Bake sales, sausage sizzles
• School fundraisers

If you are interested in becoming a part of a team of passionate people making a proactive and positive difference in your community, please click one of the available roles below to join the team.

Together we change lives!

Foster carers provide temporary homes for animals in the care of RSPCA who may need respite from the shelter environment, support to recover from an illness or just extra TLC as they await their furever home.

Our foster carers are unique individuals who dedicate their time and open their homes to animals that are in need of care for a range of reasons, creating a loving environment that enables RSPCA animals to rehabilitate while supporting their specific needs. 

Every day RSPCA foster carers are providing short-term homes for over 700 animals across Queensland and that number continues to grow. 

What type of animals are available to foster?
Please review foster regions below for specific priority needs across the state

• Dogs and cats that aren’t coping in the shelter environment and need to be in a home. They may just need a break away from the kennels or they may need to stay in foster until an adoption can be arranged.
• Convalescing animals that need some time to recover from illness or injury before being available for adoption.
• Animals with behavioural problems who need some form of rehabilitation before being considered suitable for adoption.
• Home Ever After animals that are waiting for their owner to return from hospital or whose owner has passed away and are waiting to be rehomed.
• Animals that need a safe haven due to a Domestic Violence situation
• Puppies and kittens that need a bit more growing time before they can be desexed and made available for adoption.
• Animals that can’t be accommodated at the shelter or adoption centre because of limited space or facilities.
• Animals that are available for adoption in one of our RSPCA adoption centres and need care outside of business hours.
• Animals that have to be evacuated immediately from an emergency situation e.g. floods, bushfires, cyclone, earthquake.

Important things to think about when considering Fostering:

• Placing the right animal, with the right carer, in the right situation is our priority. This may mean to takes longer to get an animal into your care depending on what home life you can provide and who you are comfortable caring for.
• The majority of animals in need foster care usually have specific requirements regarding their home spaces and family situation; needing 5-6ft fences, no other animals in the home, no young children or someone home with them is not an uncommon situation.
• On a day to day basis there are currently only a relatively small number of puppies and toy / small sized adult dogs. Especially when compared to the large number of existing carers who have signed up exclusively to foster these animals. As such, if you only have 4ft fences or only want to foster puppies and toy/small adult dogs, your wait might be considerable.
• Outside of cat breeding season (the cooler months), there are relatively few kittens who require foster care. 
• Our greatest need at the moment is for carers who want to foster medium to large sized adult dogs, who have 5-6ft fences, no young children and no dogs in the home (or maybe one well-socialised medium to large sized dog of your own). We are also always in need of carers who will take adult cats (especially our cat flu kitties) and our canine and feline ringworm cases.
• Being flexible with who you can open your home to opens you to the most potential for placement, consider if you could take an adult cat, kittens, puppies or even a bird in addition to just small dogs may mean you are placed with an animal faster. Complete training is provided for all animal types.

To begin your application process, review the foster regions below. 

While there are a lot of volunteer roles at RSPCA Qld are focused on caring for the animals in our animal care centres, we have many other roles that help support us in the other areas of our organisation!

There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to help keep RSPCA Qld moving like a well-oiled machine, so that we can continue to care for the animals and provide vital services to the community. Some volunteer roles require specialised skill sets or interests, so if this sounds like you, please have a look at our current vacancies. 

Volunteers help us in areas such as the following:

• Animal Ambulance (drivers and assistants)
• Marketing (e.g. graphic design, copywriting, photography)
• Call Centre and Customer Service
• Administration
• Fundraising

If you're keen to volunteer in a support volunteer role, please have a look at our current vacancies and submit an application.

Looking for an administrative volunteer role, and also passionate about Education? You might be interested in our Education Administration Assistant | Wacol role. Click here for more information!

As a not for profit organisation, we rely on the support of the community to be sustainable. Our Op Shops and World For Pets stores play an important role in contributing to the success of RSPCA Qld, helping us to raise 20% of our annual income.

Volunteer

If you have a passion for op shopping, fashion, retail, customer service, being an environmental warrior or helping animals in need, the RSPCA Op Shop team want you! 

Op Shop Assistants help with with customer service, point of sales operations, merchandising, sorting, and undertaking general op shop duties. In some of our shops we have cats and kittens that are available for adoption, so you may be able to help out caring for them while they wait for their furever home.

We also have Op Shop Driver Assistants who with with driving the RSPCA Op Shop truck, collecting donated items from the local area and delivering furniture to the customer once purchased. 

We may also have volunteers assisting in our World For Pets store, which can be a great way to learn new skills and gain work experience. 

Please see the current vacancies below!

Donate & Shop

Shopping at the range of Op Shops located around Queensland is a great way to find a bargain on clothing, household items, bric a brac, accessories and furniture,  while helping to raise much needed funds to help over 50,000 animals RSPCA Qld cares for each year. Click here to see our Op Shop locations. 

We happily accept most items provided they are suitable for resale in our Op Shops, in good working order, not broken, damaged, stained or torn.  

• New or pre-loved clothing, handbags, shoes, accessories, jewellery
• Good quality bric-a-brac and homewares
• Saleable quality books and pre-loved toys
• Dvds, Cds and vinyl records
• Saleable quality sporting goods
• Furniture (please note that only selected RSPCA Op shops can accept furniture items)

Due to health and safety reasons there are certain items we are unable to accept including: 

• Pillows and mattresses
• Opened toiletries and consumables
• Motorcycle and bicycle helmets
• High chairs, cots, baby capsules and prams without the Australian Standard.
• Any items that are broken or incomplete.

Due to our limited transferring resources we kindly request all animal goods be donated directly to your local RSPCA animal centre. 

If you're looking for quality pet supplies, we have our World For Pets stores, including the online shop! If you're looking to shop instore, please click here to view our shop locations.