Volunteers

ANIMAL CARE

VOLUNTEER(S)NEEDED FROM JULY 7 2009! 3 MONTH COMMITMENT MINUMUM.

YOU WILL BE WORKING WITH OUR RESCUED AGRICULTURAL ANIMALS OUR PIGS, SHEEP AND CHICKENS.

You have the unique opportunity to:

Live surrounded by animals in a beautiful, quiet croft by the sea with tremendous views. Learn about the animals' care. Spend time with them knowing they are truly our relatives and will be taken care of.

Learn different skills, i.e. fencing, gardening, tree-planting, dry-stone walling, plastering, plumbing, painting and decorating, roof repair.

You can learn book-keeping, the internet, email lists and all the work involved in running an animal sanctuary!

On the more esoteric level we can teach meditation, healing (human and animal), writing, identifying goals etc.

We also offer the opportunity to participate in research programmes to help awareness of animal-human interaction.

Have plenty of free time with the animals with access to broadband computer and large library of books. In any case, you can live a more traditional way and 'let go' of some of our modern, consumerist addictions. Find out who you really are and what you really want.

We welcome input and the sharing of different skills.

Get an excellent reference citing the skills you've learnt as well as your ability to be reliable, resourceful, self-sufficient and hardy from our charity.

In return THE LIVING ARK OFFERS:

Sole use of accommodation in a self-contained caravan on the croft (electricity and gas, bathroom and kitchen), suit individual or couple. There is another caravan nearby for WWOOFers, as well as the holiday cottage (no use for Volunteers) and annexe (see below). The animals usually choose to live around and under your caravan!

Additional use of a new bathroom with separate electric shower and bath and vegetarian kitchen, washing machine, library and large living area with picture windows towards the sea in a nearby annexe in certain hours. Volunteers computer with broadband.

Opportunity to rent holiday cottage on the sanctuary for the winter, www.denekin.com.

Reception for most mobile phone networks (unusually for Skye) and possibility to install an addiitonal home phone line in your name.

A largely pure, allergy-free environment. Use of juicer, seed milk maker etc. Free eggs from our happy hens.

Paid cleaning work usually on a Saturday for the holiday cottage when it is rented.

Opportunity to board your animals for free (sorry no dogs, until fence is built around volunteers accommodation)

Opportunity to design and participate in designing and building new and better housing for volunteers next summer.

Opportunities to learn about animal healing, meditation etc. from Directors (but we are fairly self-contained in separate quarters with cats) so position suits someone who is also self-contained.

YOUR DUTIES INCLUDE

Twice daily animal feeding of our pigs, chickens and sheep. Watering as often as needed (usually more in summer of course).

Keeping accurate records of the animal care of the agricultural animals on sheets we provide. Learning animals' names and identifying them and how they behave when they are healthy, so you will know if they get sick. Letting the directors know.

Keeping track of animal feed for our agricultural animals and ordering more in advance, respecting that things take longer to happen on an island.

Occasional mucking out (not a daily chore unlike many places, as our animals usually choose to live outside).

Checking boundary of croft and keeping it tidy, and keeping annexe clean.

Egg gathering. Hen counting.

Taking agricultural animals to vet when necessary or calling vet in, looking after when sick.

Helping out with lifts etc. if somone's car break down or they are without one on an occasional basis. Helping train new arrivals on the croft (i.e. WWOOFers).

OUR REQUIREMENTS

Kindness to animals! We give our animals LOVE and they are happy. Our animals, unusally for a farm or sanctuary intereact at their discretion, not ours. We respect their needs and desires.

Adaptability, flexibility and the ability to cope with challenging situations, for instance help with sick animals, dealing with Skye weather!

Willingness to 'muck in' i.e. you'll spend some of the day in a boiler suit and wellies.

You MUST be self-sufficient and be able to enjoy spending lots of timw with the animals and just get on with things.

A certain amount of physical strength, for instance in moving animal feed for our agricultural animals which comes in big bags (Rima at 5'5' and 8 stone can manage).

People who support out ideals, for instance in the promotion of vegetarianism and saving of animals lives.

Your own mobile phone.

Full c.v. and references. Please disclose any medical conditions (does not preclude you and reasons for any time away from society). Please note we practice a philosophy of positive discrimination towards the disabled whenever possible, and can offer care from an emergency doctor on site. Sorry if you are addicted to alcohol or drugs, please contact us when you are addiction free - we don't have the facilities to cope with this.

You will need a car unless you are very used to coping in rural areas without one. We are in a very remoteand beautiful rural area!

If you are from Europe, it is possible for you to go on social security. We can also offer extra cleaning work, which will not conflict with this. Otherwise contribution towards costs according to means. You need to be able to pay for your own food and bills and there is a small deposit.

WWOOF

We are currently receiving lots of enquiries from wwoofers. We are only looking for people to do animal care, who may be prepared to commit long term.

Otherwise we would very much appreciate labouring work (fencing, plastering, painting, gardening).

You will be in the second caravan on site, with electricity and cooking facilities. There is a single bed and please bring your own bedding. You use the bathroom in the nearby annexe. Please note this caravan is quite damp and not normally suitable for winter.

We are currently looking for a volunteer from early July. Minumum commitment 2 weeks, longer preferred.

Sorry we don't provide food, and we do have lots of spare healthy vegetarian food in our kitchen, but you will need to buy some too.