Make a difference to cats by volunteering at your local Cats Protection centre.
Would you like to be part of our devoted centre volunteer team?
Cats Protection has over 30 adoption and homing centres across the UK that are run by employees with the help of passionate and dedicated volunteers. Our centres take in cats in need and ensure they receive the veterinary care and attention needed to help them be ready for adoption. Centres also help raise funds to directly help cats in their care; facilitate the neutering of thousands of cats every year and help spread cat welfare messages.
You’ll develop new skills, make new friends, and help improve the lives of cats and kittens in your local community.
Where would I be based?
We have over 30 centres across the UK. Find your closest Cats Protection site.
Centre volunteer roles at Cats Protection
We have a variety of centre volunteer roles to suit different experiences, interests, and the time you can give.
- Cat desensitisation volunteer – you’ll be spending time enriching the cats’ experience through play, exercise and handling until they are happy and confident enough to find their perfect forever homes
- Cat care volunteer – you’ll be spending time directly with cats, cleaning their pens, feeding, grooming, and enriching their play time
- Kitten hand-rearing volunteer – providing excellent care and a great start in life for kittens who will then go on to be rehomed by your centre
- Kitten socialisation volunteer – you’ll be spending time enriching each kitten’s experience through play, exercise and handling until they are happy and confident enough to be rehomed by your centre
- Customer and cat care volunteer – you’ll be directly caring for cats during their time with us and provide excellent customer service to visiting members of the public
- Trap, neuter and return (TNR) volunteer – you’ll be helping reduce the number of feral cats by raising awareness of our TNR programmes, setting humane traps to safely capture cats, taking them to local vets to be neutered, and hopefully returning them back to their territory
- Transport volunteer – you’ll be transporting equipment, litter, food – and even cats!
- Meet and greet volunteer – you’ll be providing a friendly, professional and warm welcome to all centre visitors
- DIY volunteer – you’ll be keeping our centres safe, tidy and welcoming
- Green fingers volunteer – you’ll help making our centres welcoming and enjoyable places for cats, people and wildlife
- You can also join our Education and Fundraising teams on behalf of your local centre.
Find an opportunity near you
In 2022…
- we helped 144,000 cats and kittens, including 12,000 feral cats, through our national network of around 210 volunteer-run branches and 34 centres. That’s the equivalent of helping around 400 cats a day.
- we found new homes for 30,000 cats, creating purrfect matches and lifelong friendships
- 2,000 cats were reunited with their owners
"We are very lucky to be blessed by a wonderful group of people who volunteer with us in the adoption centre. You make the sun shine on the darkest of days just by coming in to help! Every pen cleaned, every open day, street collection or pub quiz attended by you, the volunteer, is not only helping in practical ways, but raising the profile of the centre, and most importantly helping us place cats into loving forever homes!” – Bel, Adoption Centre Manager
How do I apply?
If you’d like to volunteer in one of our centres, please apply online, or contact your local team to find out what opportunities they currently have.
You need to be aged 14 or over to volunteer in our centres.
