Domesticated Animals in Sanctuaries of Refugees Fleeing Violence

Sona Kalafusova and Zipporah Weisberg present a lecture as part of the 2026 VAS Summer Lecture Series.

On the 9^th of April 2026, Zipporah Weisberg and Sona Kalafusova presented a lecture as part of the Vienna Animal Studies summer lecture series, with the aim to explore how animals in sanctuaries are legally defined and what opportunities exist for enhancing their status and protections. 

They started with a provocative story, a story about pigs at the Progetto Cuori Liberi (Free Hearts Project) sanctuary in Sairano, Pavia, Italy, who, on the 20^th of September 2023 were killed by authorities because of an outbreak of African Swine Fever in the country. Because pigs are legally defined as agricultural animals, they are subjected to the same disciplinary incursions as their kin found in industrial operations. And while Weisberg and Kalafusova were at pains to argue that they think no animals should be killed for human use, they found the infringement on animals who were in places of sanctuary and protection deserving of particular attention – not least because sanctuaries are in “a constant state of precarity” but also because a change in legal status for these animals could result in shifts in how domesticated animals are generally regarded.

“Animals are under siege” Weisberg proclaims and there is a need to pay attention to the specificity of how that operates and what opportunities there are to change the status quo. While the legal status of many animals in sanctuaries in the same as those found in farms, in Austria and Spain the situation is slightly different. In Spain, some animals can acquire the status of “companions” (similar to dogs and cats kept in people’s homes) and in Austria they are afforded “extended welfare protections” (to ensure they are kept in ways that align with their species-specific needs).

While promising, these measures “don’t go far enough”, Weisberg argues, going onto say that what is needed is “a more radical claim” because “there is increasing violence against animals” and they are facing what can only be described as “zoocide.” The driving question is whether animals in sanctuaries would be better legally protected if they were defined as refugees or residents.

In an ideal situation, the animals would be considered residents and citizens, in the ways suggested by political philosophers Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka but in the interim Kalafusova and Weisberg believe the concept and status “refugee” holds a great deal of promise, not only because, there is a large existing infrastructure of international humanitarian law from which to borrow and build but because the concept is  normatively charged. Anyone with the status of refugee has needed to flee a troubling situation – that could be situations brought on by weather and other ‘natural’ causes as well as socio-political reasons. Perhaps some animals are “climate refugees,” fleeing devastation wrought by warming temperatures and others “political refugees” fleeing conflicts brought on by their social exclusion and objectification. As Weisberg notes refugee “is a temporal, geographical, and situational category” making it a promising category from which to consider animals in sanctuaries.

Zipporah Weisberg at the 2026 VAS Summer Lecture Series.

This is an ongoing project for Kalafusova and Weisberg so during the Q&A the audience was keen to provide suggestions and ideas for what could be added to their lexicons and areas where the social and legal standing of animals in sanctuaries could be further examined. This included suggestions to examine the usefulness of ‘personhood’ and ‘internally displaced persons’  and a provocation to not only consider the legal status of the animals but also of the spaces in which they are found. Depending on where one is, their legal status might change and considering several spaces (think of national parks and conservation areas) have been built with animals in mind and that the notion of ‘sanctuary’ was originally used to denote a space from which people (most often slaves, fugitives, and accused criminals) could seek safety from violence this offers an exciting avenue from which to strengthen their line of inquiry.

Thinking about animals as refugees is strategic and “helps with reconceptualizing the debate” because it offers a move from which to think about the status of specific animals and how their lives are shaped by broader systems of control and violence. It offers yet another tool in the toolbox that aims to find ways of providing animals with the status they deserve and the protections they are owed. A means of preventing situations like what happened to Pumba, Dorothy, Crusca, Ursula, Spino, Crosta, Bartolomeo, Mercoledi, and Carolina at Progetto Cuori Liberi.

Sona Kalafusova discusses the pigs from Progetto Cuori Liberi.