Earning their Trust: How Animal Rescue NPOs Retain Regular Volunteers

• In Event: 2112 - Section on Animals and Society Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03: Animals, Work and Social Movements

Abstract

Though gradually increasing, volunteering remains uncommon in Japan, with statistics showing a mere 9% of regular volunteers (Taniguchi 2010). Nakano (2000) notes that volunteering may be perceived as time taken away from primary obligations, namely family and work life, but that some are embracing volunteering as part of their identity. Whereas the past two major disasters, the Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 and then Tohoku Disaster of 2011, celebrated large volunteer efforts, they proved temporary and context specific, dwindling swiftly. This paper examines an exception to this standard, asking why it is that volunteers within the scant animal rescue non-profit organizations have high numbers of dedicated, regular volunteers. Compiling findings from 75 volunteer surveys and 12 months of on-site multispecies ethnographic fieldwork as a volunteer at four animal rescue sites, this paper explores how human-animal relationships within these spaces lead to dedicated and consistent volunteer efforts. Specifically, I link this form of volunteering to current social phenomena, such as loneliness and contemporary relationships with companion animals in Japan, to understand what brings volunteers back to these often distant, messy, loud, and smelly sites.

Author

• Seven Mattes