The City of Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department has been matching loving furry companions to pet parents and families for years. Our goal is to engage people to assist in creating an environment of compassion for our shelter animals through adoption, education, spay/neuter, and positive community outreach.

Animals in our City need your help. The City of Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department is always recruiting volunteers who want to donate their time to help our four-legged friends. Whether you can contribute a few hours a week, a few hours a month, a few hours a year, or you want to open your home to animals who are having a hard time in the shelter, there is a place in the department for you.

We are staff and volunteers providing shelter, care and enrichment for over 16,000 homeless pets per year with the ever present goal of permanent placement in adoptive homes, foster homes or rescue placement with the support of our community. We are advocates for owned pets and the citizens in our community who love them.

Volunteer at the Animal Shelter

A shelter is a solution, but not a home. While animals in our community are waiting for their forever home, the shelter is the only safe place available to them. For some, this stay is short, but for many, the wait is far too long (and seven-times longer in dog years). Our Animal Welfare Department volunteers have an impact on every little life that walks, trots, or hops through those doors. 

The Animal Welfare Department maintains shelters on the east and west sides of the City and is always recruiting volunteers to make the shelter a better, more fun, and a more beautiful place for animals to be. This department offers flexible hours for their volunteers to accommodate any schedule. and level of training.

Volunteers can chose to work with cats, dogs, and exotic animals.

For a more comprehensive list of our opportunities divided by pet, listings of the trainings needed to volunteer and all of the details about how to start your volunteering process with us, please visit

www.oneabqvolunteers.com/awd