Animal Welfare Volunteers: Who Are They and Why Do They Do What They Do?
This article investigates the demographics of animal welfare volunteers and their motivations for such involvement, based on a sample of 426 animal welfare volunteers who provided information to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2007 for the “Volunteering in the United States” survey.
The analysis identifies the typical animal welfare volunteer as female, white, pet-owning, heterosexual, employed, childless, married/partnered, Democrat-leaning, between the ages of 40 and 59, with an income between $50,000 and $99,999, and Protestant. The researchers believe that animal welfare volunteers are “primarily motivated by a need to act on important values relating to animals” and they discuss volunteer recruitment and retention.
Researchers also concluded that the modified Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) is a valid instrument to use with this population, and