Volunteer With Us
Thankyou for considering donating your time to Shear Existence. We are a 100% Volunteer run organisation. Running a Sanctuary requires a lot of work! Each day there are endless tasks to get through to ensure all the animals receive the top tier care they are so deserving of. We have a number of areas that we could really use a hand with. You may also have a special skill up your sleeve that isn’t noted, we are very much open to hearing about that too.
There is no minimum time commitment required to Volunteer. Are you available Weekly, Monthly, for a one off? All so helpful! It is important that before signing on as a volunteer, you are confident you can dedicate yourself to the time frame and task you are signing up for. We completely understand that things can crop up unexpectedly, we only ask for you to let us know if there are any changes to your availability.
Sounding good so far? Here are just some of the areas we are seeking help with.
Bookkeeping professional
Artists and creators (We would love some Resident inspired art for merchandise and/or prints)
Building, repairing and improving infrastructure
Hand Crafting/donating animal friendly items to sell in our online store (No Sheeps wool, leather, feathers etc please)
Social media content creation (are you clever with reels and creating engaging content showcasing the animals?)
Blog Post contributions (Animal information, knowledge and care, plant based food info/recipes for example)
Fundraising
Transporters
We invite you to complete the short form here to express your interest in volunteering with us. Many thanks from the Shear Existence Flock
Adopt
This particular Hen’ is an advocacy program dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming of formerly farmed hens. After adopting Amelia, Mairi and Monique, 3 hens who had lived their first 18months of life in an intensive battery cage factory farm being exploited for their eggs, we saw firsthand the devastating condition these ladies arrived in, It simply wasn’t a life worth living and a fate nobody deserves. Allocated the industry standard space size of an A4 size piece of paper, Battery cage hens are crammed tightly into dirty wire cages and denied any opportunity to perform their instinctual behaviours, live in a safe natural environment, and are unable to form the complex social structures of a chicken flock.
They are not afforded any veterinary care when sick, injured or dying which is common given the conditions. At 18 months to 2 years old when their egg laying slows, they are what industry calls ‘depopulated’, which is when their entire shed is killed and replaced by younger hens.
After seeing the recovery, the 3 hens made in sanctuary, we couldn’t deny the impact we could have on each particular hen’s life. Their complex emotions and individuality became indisputable, all 3 had strikingly unique personalities, temperaments, likes and dislikes. We were inspired by their strength and ability to be brave and curious about this new life in front of them despite never having seen or experienced anything but the horrible conditions within the tiny, crowded cages in which they are held captive.
When it was announced in 2022 that Cage egg facilities would not be phased out before 2036 despite decades of advocacy and extensive undeniable evidence showing the inhumane conditions in all cage farms, we were deeply saddened and felt compelled to act, and so ‘This Particular Hen’ was born. Our goal is to provide these ladies the life they were born worthy off, one in which they can thrive and not simply survive and to share their stories in hope of creating a kinder world for Chickens.
RESOURCES
Are you ready to contribute to a kinder world for animals but have no idea where to start? In a society where so much cruelty and suffering is hidden well out of sight, it can be hard to know what changes to make and how to go about them.