As an animal lover, I came to Animal Friends for the first time to inquire about volunteering. They said I have to apply online and after attending orientation, there are different levels of animal handling you can attain with training. You start out at a green level. I tried not to laugh when she said this. What is a green level--a scratch behind the ears and then after so many hours you graduate to the blue level of scooping their poop?
I walked around and saw the cats and rabbits are all caged. Despite living in a cage, no one other than staff and volunteers are allowed to touch or interact with the animals and a staff member told me this happens "once a day only if the animal wants to come out." That is appalling. These animals need more human interaction. They should be allowing the public to have supervised interaction with the animals. Your ridiculousness is costing those animals love and interaction they could be having outside of those confined tiny cages.
And you should get down off the high horse about volunteering. You're lucky to have anyone wanting to volunteer their time for the betterment of adopting animals, yet you want to color-code it by hours of education? Get serious. Did it ever occur to you all that people who volunteer at an animal shelter likely have a surplus of experience in caring for their own animals? Why else would they be there?
I gave Animal Friends 3 stars because the facility looks well-maintained. Additionally, if they are that ridiculous about someone volunteering and earning so many volunteer hours to go from one level to another, I can only imagine how strict they are with getting potential adopters approved. I think people taking a pet home should have to go through thorough background checks, so I'm glad.