Volunteering and Job Opportunities
Whether you live in Tennessee or in Wyoming, you can contribute to the welfare of pigs everywhere by assisting us in some of our tasks.
Our formal policy, for health reasons and legal and insurance requirements, does not permit visitors on the sanctuary property. This is true of most large sanctuaries. Liabilities are enormous where animals are concerned. Sometimes people misunderstand our inability to use their help with a lack of appreciation for the offer...which is certainly not the case.. we appreciate your offer and want to make sure every minute of your time is used effectively and well. Most of the work that needs doing to help the pigs in our community and beyond, is not on the sanctuary grounds.
If you can work at home on your computer you can do wonders for our sanctuary and for pigs in need here and elsewhere.
Most sanctuary pigs do not welcome strangers. Casual volunteers do well with dogs and many other animals who have been domesticated for centuries. .. but pigs are suspicious and some are frightened or downright hostile. Most of the pigs here are not pets, by intent they are encouraged to return to a more wild state to make their social relationships with other pigs. As much as possible we limit human activity around them.
To get the work done safely and well we have a small number of volunteers who have become "regulars" or staff . As they come and go the pigs begin to accept their presence. ..We are actively searching for a few more to fill some special jobs.
The Jobs listed below are particular needs which have been identified as ones that make the organization run most efficiently. Skills needed range from carpentry to mechanical skills to "power user" in Microsoft Office or web development.
Whether you can be a regular volunteer with a particular job or work from home in Oklahoma or Wyoming. we appreciate you and your effort. .. and there are many things you can do to make the world better for pigs that do not require you to be on site.
Longer term : If you are interested in interning for a 2 month or greater period, please see the intern page. An application is available there. All of our interns have been exceptional young people, and most have remained volunteers after their internship.. Derin, who flew in from Oregon to volunteer during the week I was working on the Symposium is an example of their kind of commitment. Christina, who spent 6 months interning is one of our most capable Staff members as is Nisa, who spent two months helping me set up this new place when we moved 2 years ago. These young people are the future for the animals in sanctuaries everywhere. Our intern program is developed to help people who may want a lifelong career with animals.
Please also see the volunteer & visitor guidelines that apply to everyone who comes here. Be informed before you come and your initial orientation will go more smoothly.
Safety rules are published on the bulletin board and are located here: Safety
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Job Descriptions
Outreach Manager 6-8 hours per week Filled
Task includes providing the initial contact for people wanting to place or adopt pigs and networking the needs to anyone who can assist. Phone/internet information dissemination, transports and vetting arranged, home checks scheduled, forms completed and funds secured. All of these tasks have to be melded successfully into a cohesive whole to assist a pig who is needing a new home. We do not adopt from the sanctuary but do assist others in placing their pigs into homes that have passed an evaluation for suitability.
Operations Manager: 20 hours per week Filled
Tasks include repairs and maintenance to equipment, fences, barns and land upkeep . We currently have this divided up amongst several people and some done as projects by volunteers on “work days”. Successful completion of this task would mean the flow of animal care and other daily responsibilities would not be stopped or slowed down by mal-functioning equipment or needed repairs, gates that wouldn’t open or the dozens of other little things that come unglued over time. We might call this the glue manager position.
Pet Pig Advisor Variable 1 to 2 hours weekly Needed
Someone with patience and who has had a lot of experience with baby pigs and pet pigs needed to assist the clients who call or email with pet pig issues. Also would need to be able to print and mail brochures on pig care .
Contact List manager 1-2 hours per week Needed
Another ideal job for someone who can't travel but wants to help, this job involves calling or emailing the various persons on the lists (sanctuaries, rescues, vets) to keep the published lists up to date. This individual will have to have huge amounts of patience.. as you will often call and leave repeated messages and never get responses. Calling again and again can get tiresome but the information is essential if we are to be able to keep helping pigs in far off places find help in re-homing or medical care.
Publications assistant : filled
Project oriented; can take 10 or more hours per week
Printing/collating/binding newsletters, calendars, brochures and other printed materials for distribution.
PR/ Field educator (several needed)
If you like to travel and meet people this may suit you. We need to visit each county/city animal shelter and sheriff/ police chief and abuse officer in Tennessee and sit down with them for 15 minutes and go over the abuse laws and the need for their help in stopping abuse and the breeding of potbellies. We can leave them standup brochure holders with our Helping Hoof program brochures and give them other written information to help them do their jobs.
The individuals needed will have to have the ability to leave all personal feelings behind and deal with the effective information decimation to people who are overworked, disinterested, unbelieving or just plain rude. Most of the officials who handle potbellies do not know the state laws pertaining to them, so how can we expect them to enforce them? Also, many shelters have one "livestock" pen, and potbellies are often put in with horses, goats or other animals who harm them. We saw a little crippled pig put in with a horse in a shelter that was kicked to death before we could get her released. PBP's are not livestock, by definition, in this state.. we can educate and save lives if we can reach these people personally and educate them.
A 4 hour "pre-sales training" program is required. The subject has to be dealt with on a professional, economic level to show officials in dollars and cents why helping us means their lives will be easier and the law will be served., as well as saving the precious pigs we hold so dear.
Road Runner: 6-10 hours per week needed
Every week we have hundreds of miles and many hours of scheduled pickups of donated foods for the pigs, farm supplies that need to be purchased, non functioning items that need to be taken to repair shops, auto service and many other tasks that involve driving to and from.
Internet MIS / Website Development 6-8 hours per week needed
Shepherd’s Green is listed on many international websites dealing with charities. These often bring us interns and support and bring others to us who need help with their pigs. This management information system needs regular maintenance to be kept current and to seek new opportunities. Also on the net we have retail selling opportunities which need continuous updating and promotion. Our website frequently gets backed up with needed corrections and updates. All in all, the task of keeping us electronically up to date is a broad one. requiring someone with excellent computer skills and a good working knowledge of how the internet works.
Wranglers (1) one day per month to assist with tusk and feet trims. needed
Task involves catching and throwing large and potentially dangerous pigs with long sharp tusks. Some of these pigs weigh 300 or more pounds and will attack when cornered. Physical strength, speed and nerves of steel required. Make no mistake, this work is dangerous and people have been hurt doing it, here or at other sanctuaries.
Bookkeeper: 2-3 hours per week Needed
Needs someone with an eye for detail and a willingness to stay involved week after week so that the nuances of our system are not lost from one keypunching day to the next.
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Special Care Handler 1-2 hours per week Needed
Years ago we had someone doing this.. She would come out every week to spend a couple of hours with the special care pigs, brushing them and putting skin lotion on them, cleaning their barn and generally making their lives very pleasant. They get little attention beyond the daily care and are so limited in their ability to seek out things of interest that this special person makes a great deal of difference in their lives.
Staff
Shepherd’s Green has no full time volunteers. To assist in making the sanctuary more effective, there are individuals who volunteer to take on a share of the responsibility,. For these individuals , the volunteer activities have become part of their lives, and they have become a part of the organization as surely as the Board of Directors, in many cases they are more present and more actively involved in practical sanctuary care. They are our Staff.. literally.. we lean on them like a well worn hickory limb, helping us bear the sometimes heavy weight of the work we do.
Our "Staff" are those individuals who have shown, over several years’ time, repetitive volunteer willingness, practical skills and commitment to the ultimate well being of the organization and the pigs we serve. These individuals are people who have run sanctuaries, who have interned with sanctuaries, or who have simply had the care of pigs of their own and sought more information on what they could do to help pigs. They are special people who have earned out trust and our confidence. They are the core of our volunteer activities, and can do many of the farm chores with effectiveness and with only a briefing on new groups, fences or waterways. They can roll with the punches and the emotions that often surround some of the issues we have to deal with. Personalities are put aside when our staff works together.. we all have differing views on most everything.. but for the time we work for the pigs,, we work for the pigs.
These are the only individuals who may work alone on the sanctuary grounds or who may supervise others.
Staff List 2008
Richard Brandes
Christina Buckelew
Steve Crooks
Matthew Glover
R.K. Glover
Jason Lotz
Ann Morbitt
Nisa Tawjareon