Volunteering

Do you want to do meaningful volunteer work to help animals? HESY gladly welcomes helping hands!

HESY uses a volunteer booking calendar where you can see available tasks and sign up for shifts. Regular volunteer slots are only available for our Human friends program, while other tasks are opened as needed when extra help is required.

We currently need volunteers in the following areas:

Human friends

Many of our cats have had either bad experiences with humans, or have had virtually no human contact at all. To help scaredy cats realise people are not dangerous – which really helps with their chances of adoption – human friends spend time with the cats to show that nothing awful will happen. This typically involves simply sitting in the cats’ parlour for an hour: you can browse your mobile or read or knit or whatever you like whilst there!

You can become a Human friend volunteer at the age of 15, but those under 18 need parental permission to participate. Children under 15 are welcome to join when accompanied by a guardian.

Human friend shifts are available on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 16:00 to 19:00 and must be booked in advance. Please be patient, as these shifts are very popular and fill up quickly! New slots are added to our scheduling calendar in the middle of each month.

Baking circle

HESY Centre occasionally hosts public events which showcase its activities. We also organise more general animal-themed events. At these events, homemade pastries are available for guests to purchase, with the proceeds going towards the shelter’s activities. If you like baking, consider joining our baking circle! 

The next event: Open House on February 14th 2026 from 10:00 to 16:00. Sign up to be a baker here!

Gardening at the animal cemetery

From spring to autumn, we organize gardening events where tasks include raking, weeding, trimming bushes, and generally tidying up the cemetery.

You are also welcome to visit the cemetery at any time to rake and clean independently. Rakes and other tools are available in the outdoor shelter. Grave holders are responsible for maintaining their own pets’ graves, while all other areas are open for general upkeep.

Commonly requested volunteer tasks that HESY unfortunately cannot offer:

Animal care
Dog walking
* Foster care

Please note

We care very much about the safety of our volunteers, but unfortunately they are not covered by our insurance policy. For this reason, if you wish to volunteer for any task involving animals, we strongly recommend that you take out insurance which covers recreational accidents and check that your basic vaccinations are up to date.