Animal Shelter Volunteer Waiver

Protecting both volunteers and your animal shelter starts with clear, comprehensive waivers. This Animal Shelter Volunteer Waiver template is designed specifically for animal shelters, rescue organizations, and pet adoption centers that need to document volunteer understanding of inherent risks—from bites and scratches to zoonotic disease exposure—while capturing essential training acknowledgments and emergency contact information.

Whether you're onboarding new volunteers for kennel work, foster programs, or adoption events, this waiver ensures everyone understands the realities of working with animals in varying states of health, temperament, and socialization. The form covers bite and scratch risks, exposure to diseases and parasites, physical demands of animal handling, and the unpredictable nature of shelter animals.

Built with Paperform, this template gives you complete control over branding, conditional logic, and submission workflows. Collect eSignatures directly in the form, then use Papersign (papersign.com) to route signed waivers for counter-signatures by staff or administrators, creating a complete audit trail. With Stepper (stepper.io), you can automate what happens next—adding volunteers to databases, scheduling orientation sessions, sending training materials, or triggering background checks based on their role selections.

Trusted by animal welfare organizations managing volunteer programs at scale, this template helps you maintain legal protection while creating a welcoming, transparent onboarding experience that sets the right expectations from day one.