If you’re looking for opportunities to create a more humane world while traveling from one beautiful place to another, then working with animal volunteer programs abroad is an excellent way to make that happen!
Whether your interests are in rehabilitation, conservation, or care and rescue, you’ll find there are as many types of animal volunteer opportunities available as there are animals in need of help. From the land to the sea — and from the biggest beasts to the smallest living creatures — when you volunteer to help animals abroad, you’re protecting some of the world’s most vulnerable beings.
The decision to pursue animal volunteering abroad brings all kinds of extra benefits your way, including adventure, travel, and connecting with other like-minded people. You can work with large organizations or small-scale operations, depending on whatever best suits your personal and professional goals.
You can build your service portfolio, gain valuable experience, and prepare for future work in a field that needs dedicated, skilled, and knowledgeable people like you. And, you can even use this particular experience volunteering with animals abroad as the first in a long line of similar opportunities, given how many different places and animals need your help.
Why find animal volunteer opportunities?
1. Your money will go towards helping, rather than exploiting.
While it seems that there is more awareness than ever about the plight of animals in the wild, in captivity, and in populated areas, the truth is that there are always untold stories of animal crisis and exploitation.
From the illegal operations and poaching farms, to the puppy mills and breeding facilities, animal welfare work is more important than ever before. When you volunteer with animals abroad, you’re making a decision to take a stand for what you believe in.
And, you can even do the right thing while you pursue animal volunteer opportunities that are truly unique — like working to rescue bears in Vietnam!
2. You can provide important support to lion conservation in Africa.
With dwindling numbers of lions in the wild, big cat conservation efforts need your help. Animal volunteer programs abroad are super-critical for animals like lions, who are now on the vulnerable species list.
In fact, while these kinds of relief efforts are primarily located within Africa, the sad truth is that they are only located in a small number of countries due to mass extinction in most of the rest of the world.
With that in mind, if the lion’s roar is your calling, be sure to check out opportunities to volunteer abroad with animals in places like South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.
3. You can work in marine conservation to protect the wildlife in our oceans.
It’s no secret that humans depend on water to survive...but we’re not alone! The oceans support all life on the planet, in one way or another. And, with over 95 percent of this life-giving source as yet unexplored, there are an alarming number of extinctions being seen among the small percentage of marine life we do have classified.
From the great blue whale to the tiniest microorganisms, the delicate balance of all life is dependent on the health of our oceans and waterways. If you want to volunteer in marine conservation, you’ll not only do some very important work, you’ll also find yourself in vacation-friendly places like Costa Rica, Australia, Fiji, Spain, Greece, Ecuador, or the Caribbean.
4. You can help man’s best friend feel loved and cared for.
Working with animal welfare can be a calling of the heart, but it can also be heart-breaking. When you volunteer to help animals abroad, and you place your focus on our favorite four-legged friends, you might find yourself working with abused and abandoned dogs in places like Guatemala, Nepal, or the Philippines.
Whether you’re providing necessary veterinary care in spay and neuter clinics, or helping rescue dogs that were held in cruel or unsanitary conditions, you’re bringing much-needed love and care to an animal that most of us have come to think of as part of the family. Unfortunately, many of these poor pups are neglected, injured, and mistreated, so your kindness, your time, and your hard work makes a powerful impact.
5. You can prepare for a career in veterinary medicine.
Animal volunteer opportunities are fantastic resumé builders. And that’s an important consideration! While the options for volunteering with wildlife efforts are numerous, veterinary work is extremely competitive and the application process is known for being particularly rigorous.
The kind of experience you obtain when you volunteer with animals abroad can make your application stand out. Getting hands-on veterinary work experience is particularly popular in places like Central America, where clinic support is in high-demand.
6. You could work with elephants in their natural habitats.
If you make a choice to work with elephants when you volunteer with animals abroad, you will be able to provide necessary care and protection to one of the most majestic and vulnerable species alive today.
Elephants are threatened by a wide variety of factors, including human interaction and territorial encroachment, changes in agricultural development, illegal hunting and poaching, and environmental vulnerabilities.
With so many elephants held in captivity, the opportunity to help elephants in the wild is truly special. If you follow this path to volunteering with animals abroad, you might find yourself in places like Thailand or South Africa — but wherever you go, it will be an experience you’ll never forget!
7. You can collect meaningful data on endangered species.
There are all kinds of ways to offer hands-on support when you volunteer to help animals abroad, but efforts geared toward research, data collection, and information analysis are also critically important.
If you love the idea of pursuing animal volunteer opportunities, but also have a knack for working with numbers and statistics — or, if you get excited about zoology, biology, or chemistry — then this could be the perfect way for you to use your skills and talents to volunteer with animals abroad.
Some of the opportunities you can explore would include sea turtle conservation in Costa Rica, or protecting and tracking rhinos in places like Malawi and Mozambique, just to name a few.
8. You can ride horses on the beach — and help others do the same.
Animal volunteer opportunities that focus on horse care and equine therapy are a sure way to connect with animals (and people!) in life-changing ways.
Whether you’re working with injured and abused horses, or you’re helping people engage with the extraordinary benefit of therapeutic riding, the experience will benefit you as much as the horses and people you help.
There are equestrian programs for volunteering with animals abroad in places like Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Columbia, Argentina, and New Zealand, but wherever you decide to go, working with horses is sure to bring you joy.
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Now that you know why volunteering with animals abroad is one of the best ways to help our planet, you might be wondering where you want to go, or how you should decide. There are some great resources available to you, and this list only scratches the surface.
You might decide to go to China to work with pandas, or pursue one of the other top five options for this year (think sloths, koalas, and more!). There’s truly no shortage of opportunities for you to volunteer to help animals abroad!
And yes, for most people, the calling is a personal one — either a specific place stands out, or perhaps a specific animal opportunity carries an appeal. But there is always the option to spin the globe and let your curiosity drive you to some new location in order to volunteer with animals abroad.
If you’re moved to make a difference by working with some of the world’s most vulnerable creatures, you’re guaranteed to find the perfect opportunity to make that happen. Nothing should stop you from living your dreams and saving other lives in the process.
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