Looking for a volunteer opportunity for your organization or a resume builder? Look no further! The National Tiger Sanctuary (NTS) is looking for volunteers and internships to help the organization in the spring.

What is the NTS?

The National Tiger Sanctuary provides a permanent home for big cats, including but not limited to tigers who have been abandoned. According to Head of Operations, Shelby Scott, there is a high demand for exotic pets in the Ozark area.

“There are, unfortunately, many exotic animals that are abandoned. 100% of our animals are rescue animals. Most of our rescues are from here in the Ozarks,” said Scott.

What happens is that a person will get an exotic animal as a pet, and then grow tired of it or decide that they are too much work to take care of. The mission of the NTS is education through preservation. They hope that they can show people that getting a tiger for your backyard is harmful to the animal in many ways.

“If it wasn’t for us then most of these animals would be euthanized,” said Scott.

Because the sanctuary is a nonprofit, it relies solely on ticket sales and donations to help bring the cats a better life.

What would I do as a volunteer?

The first thing to know, according to Scott, is that no volunteers have contact with the big cats.

Instead, volunteers will help with many other essential parts of the process for caring for the animals, including helping with nutrition, so filling probiotics and vitamins. There are several maintenance projects, such as cleaning dishes and helping with merchandise for the gift shop. There are also many landscaping and gardening tasks that are available throughout the year.

“We just bought a greenhouse for this spring,” said Scott. “There will be lots of upcoming gardening projects, anything from growing fresh produce to weed eating.”

Scott organizes the volunteers and says the longer that you’re involved, the more responsibilities you’ll be able to take on.

“After you’ve been with us awhile, we can assign you to care for some of our domestic animals. We have dogs, a horse and a pig that you can feed, clean, and look after,” said Scott.

There are also opportunities to decorate boxes for the cats to play with throughout the year.

What makes this an interesting volunteer opportunity is that anyone can participate and is an opportunity extended to a variety of majors.

“We would say most of our student volunteers come from animal sciences, conservation, biology, agriculture and plant science. But we’ve also had people interested in social media, public relations, graphic design and video productions,” said Scott.

In addition to volunteer positions, there are also unpaid internships available through the NTS. Right now, the non-profit is looking for people interested in marketing and videography for an internship possibility.

“We’re really looking for someone who is interested in videography so that we can make some videos about each cat’s journey. We want someone who is interested in PR, and we’re hoping to do some fundraising this spring,” said Scott.

Scott believes that volunteering is an essential part of the NTS and that while volunteers can do a lot for the organization, NTS can often do a lot for volunteers.

“I started my job as a volunteer and now, after only two years, I’m head of operations. There are a lot of opportunities here, and everybody has to start somewhere,” said Scott.

How do I get involved?

Email the NTS at stripes@nationaltigersanctuary.org for more information about one time volunteer positions and internships. The NTS is open Wednesdays through Sundays for tours and it is located at 518 State Highway BB, Saddlebrooke/Chestnutridge.