time off, forgoing lolling on the beach in favor of more active and rewarding experiences.
“What’s another trip to the Bahamas?” asks Debbie Jacobs, the president of Explorations in Travel in Guilford, Vermont. “Nowadays, people are looking to do something different with their vacation time. Many Americans realize that they have it pretty good, and they want to give something back.” Short-term volunteering for nonprofit organizations is one of the most popular choices.
For animal lovers, that means immersing themselves in creature-friendly tasks and projects that would never fit into their regular routine. From snapping photos of sea otters along the Alaskan coast to soothing rescued cows and pigs, vacationing volunteers are finding that the rewards of donating their time to help animals far outweighs the lack of room service or tour guides.
We’ve chosen eight of our favorite destinations where you can spend a few days, a week or longer giving hands-on aid to wild and domesticated animals. Few of these trips are luxurious, and most require active participation in chores, research or housekeeping duties—in some cases, all three. Definitely not, as they say, a day at the beach. But you’ll return home with more than a sunburn and a hula skirt. “People make the commitment to help, even for a short time,” Jacobs says, “and they see what a difference they can make.”
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https://www.petfinder.com/animal-shelters-and-rescues/volunteering-with-shelters-and-rescues/volunteer-vacations/
