You can help the homeless animals in your community by volunteering as a Pet Pal at the City of San José Animal Care Center. We are looking for dedicated animal lovers to tackle a variety of tasks that will benefit both our shelter animals and visitors to the shelter. Our number one goal is to place our adoptable animals into responsible homes and to ensure that all our shelter animals are cared for and comforted as much as possible during their stay with us.

Volunteer training sessions are held approximately every eight to ten weeks. Our trainings are generally held in January, April, July, and October. You must apply and qualify to receive the training schedule.

Our volunteers fulfill a variety of roles and perform many different assignments. This ranges from helping with administrative tasks to helping with projects around the facility to working with our animals. The following experience is required to work directly with the animals:

• You must have prior animal handling experience. For instance, if you want to socialize cats, you must have had a cat of your own or had significant experience with cats.
• No experience? If you want to help, but you don't have the experience, don't worry! We have plenty of other volunteer opportunities where we can put your help and skills to good use.

Volunteers are responsible for a $35 materials fee, which includes training materials, volunteer apron, t-shirt, and badge. It is mandatory for volunteers to wear their apron and badge while volunteering at the Animal Care Center.

Anyone interested in volunteering must be 18 years old. We do not offer a youth program for volunteers under the age of 18. If you are under 18, click here to check out some other ways you can help the animals in your community or interact with animals at our partner shelters.

To volunteer at the Animal Care Center, you must be able to commit to volunteer weekly for five hours each week for six months. 

Please Note: We do not provide signatures or printouts of hours for class assignments/projects or community service, except for select veterinary programs.

Adult Day Care / Special Needs Groups / Developmental Services Programs: Supervisors are required to attend the entire training session with your client and stay with their clients each time they volunteer for the entire time they are volunteering. If you have specific questions on this, please call (408) 794-7211.

Click here to download our Pet Pal Volunteer Handbook. This manual provides important information about the expectations and experience of Animal Care Center volunteers. Before you apply to be a volunteer, you are required to read the entire manual, and you will be expected to know and follow rules and procedures that are covered in the handbook.

Our current volunteer opportunties are listed here.