Also see Core Principles of the Microsanctuary Resource Center
A microsanctuary can be as small as one rescued individual!
Though the microsanctuary model in many ways focuses on typically farmed
species, any vegan home can be a microsanctuary when caring for animals who
aren’t usually seen as “companions”: chickens, pigs, fishes, mice, rats,
rabbits, insects, and more.
A microsanctuary can be as small as one rescued individual!
A microsanctuary starts from the premise that our space and our resources,
no matter how limited, often are still sufficient for us to provide
sanctuary to individual animals RIGHT NOW in order to prevent them from ever
again being used as commodities. Additionally, microsanctuaries aren’t to be
seen as stepping stones to larger sanctuaries but ends unto themselves:
providing the best care to microsanctuary residents is a worthy goal, and
the pressure to get bigger should always come second to sustainability and
some degree of self-reliance. (In other words, beware of fundraising…
Relying on outside funds to take in and care for MORE animals will always be
in some degree of tension with doing what you can with what you have. That’s
why there’s such an urgent need to grow microsanctuaries collectively, not
to grow a limited number of microsanctuaries…)
Microsanctuary Resource Center has very deliberately avoided putting
concrete number restrictions on what a microsanctuary “is” (and “is
not”)–that’s not really the point. MRC is not a regulatory body or police
force; our goal has always been to create community around animal liberation
and make it possible to provide the best care for as many individuals as
possible.
At the same time, we HAVE put number limits on our micro-grant program due
to a need to focus our grant giving, as well as to move towards supporting
much smaller places.
Along with all of this, of course, a microsanctuary should align itself with
and practice the Core Principles, which not only promote ethical consistency
and high care standards, but also reflect on what “sanctuary” truly means.
This sense of dedication to the service of individuals in need, as a way to
end ALL forms of oppression, is what lies at the heart of sanctuary—and on
an individual level truly defines a microsanctuary.
Return to: Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies