Animal Sanctuary

Portugal has plenty of shelters for dogs and cats and very little of the other kind of sanctuary: permanent, non-breeding, non-visiting-zoo homes for large animals with nowhere else to go. That gap is what makes the work listed here unusual.

Pangea Trust is the anchor. It is converting a thousand-acre estate near Alandroal, in the Alentejo, into what would be Europe's first large-scale elephant sanctuary, a naturalistic habitat where animals retired from zoos and circuses live alongside native Portuguese wildlife.

Work of this kind takes years of licensing before a single animal arrives, so the useful support is the patient sort. If you run a sanctuary in Portugal, we would like to list it. Related focuses: habitat restoration and volunteering and social impact. Dated activities from these projects are listed in our events calendar.