ANECDOTE | EDUCATION | ANIMAL ADVOCACY

I Paid to Volunteer and it Was a Sham

How to identify legitimate causes who want your support

Nong Lek, an elephant I volunteered with in Thailand. Photo by the author.

Ever since I first started backpacking almost two decades ago, I’ve had a passion for volunteering with animals while travelling. This passion has taken me around the world, where I have worked with a variety of creatures — from endangered sea turtles in Bali, Indonesia, to stray dogs and elephants in Thailand and holy cows in India. I’ve been lucky enough to find numerous well run, highly successful volunteer tourism projects that are fully dedicated to animal welfare and conservation, and have seen donations I’ve made to those organisations go directly to animals in need.

However, I also found one project that turned out to be a scam, alerting me to the need to exercise caution when choosing volunteer tourism projects. This particular project was based in the city of Jaipur in northern India, and was advertised enticingly by a large global volunteer tourism agency along the following lines:

“You will spend six weeks travelling around the state of Rajasthan, spending each week in a different village where animals need your help. You’ll work with local people and our team of veterinarians to treat stray animals, livestock and native species, and…