The benefits of interacting with animals is not just limited to classrooms, but can also help in everyday life, and according to Malaysian Wildlife there are 7 benefits that you can gain from volunteering with animals.

“Volunteering in general allows people to be more in touch with their natural environment and also partake in a rewarding experience which is fulfilling on many different levels. The stress of the ongoing pandemic has encouraged many all around the world to utilise their time for animal volunteering. Here are 7 reasons why you would benefit by animal volunteering!”

(Malaysian Wildlife, 2021)

The 7 benefits include: (Malaysian Wildlife, 2025)

• Animal volunteering can be therapeutic (stress relieving physically and mentally)
• Improve your patience skills (every animals’ personality is different)
• Companionship (emotional bonds)
• Helping an animal in need (giving them a safe place)
• Reconnecting with nature and the environment (being around animals can help you feel calm)
• Helps develop future career skills (can help you determine if you’d like a career with animals)

From my time volunteering with animals I have gained most of these benefits, but the most important to me are my patience skills, helping animals in need, companionship, and future career skills.

As a future teacher, I believe that having patience is key because you will be in many situations that are out of your control. With animals, I had to learn that there are factors as to why animals act the way they do, such as past owners. As well, understanding their cues because they can’t actually talk to you, so knowing to be patient when trying to understand what they’re thinking or doing. Secondly, I have always been very empathetic towards animals and people, so whenever I have the opportunity to help an animal in need I am improving their quality of life and without realizing, increasing my SEL. Thirdly, I have been fortunate enough to foster many animals while growing up and sometimes we would end up adopting them. Every animal that we had I developed some sort of connection with and companionship. Which greatly improved my empathy as a kid. Lastly, by volunteering with animals, I have gained lifelong qualities that will help me with my future career as a teacher, such as empathy, patience, SEL, and kindness.

Especially during and after the pandemic, many struggled, and myself included, with the limited interaction with people. Though, I was fortunate enough to have animals in the house which helped when my parents were gone at work all day, but some people didn’t even have a companion. This greatly affected my mental wellbeing, and once the restrictions were lifted I went and volunteered at our Paws It Forward Dog Rescue in Kelowna. This helped my mental health immensely.

Flash forward to being in college right now, I have looked into volunteering at a few local places as I know it helps my mental health and improve my academic performance. One place I would like to check out is Meant 2B Loved Pet Rescue Society or the BC SPCA, as I think it would be very beneficial.