Rescued Animals not only need physical sanctuary, they require trauma-informed care and healing.

The Kerulos Center’s School for Trauma-informed Care for Animals will be located at our Oregon Sanctuary. This will be the first School of its kind where learners in our Animal Care Professional Certification Programs are trained in principles of trans-species psychology and trauma-informed care with practical application in service to individual sanctuary residents. Graduates of our programs will staff rescue centers, shelters, veterinary clinics, educational institutions, sanctuaries, and private homes.

In addition, the School will host International Conferences and Workshops that bring together people from around the world to share experience and expertise for the purpose of building a supportive community in service to Animals. Existing improvements on the property are ideal for classrooms, conference facilities, and guest lodging.

By translating our research on Elephant PTSD into practical training, the Kerulos School for Trauma-informed Care for Animals fulfills a core component of rescue and healing for all Animals exploited by the food, fashion, experimentation, and entertainment industries.

To learn more about the school and how you can help, watch this video:

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What is trauma-informed care?

Most, if not all, rescued Animals will have suffered trauma—abuse, isolation, forced removal from his/her mother and family, sustained deprivation, and survival in unnatural environments. Symptoms of Animal trauma, however, are ignored or overlooked because Animal captivity (e.g., Elephants in zoos and circuses), use and abuse (e.g., Turkeys, Cows, and Pigs in food industry), and custom (e.g., Dog and Cat breeding practices) are culturally normative settings. Elephant stereotypy, Parrot feather plucking, and Dog “aggression” are ways by which individuals cope and communicate in desperation.

Trauma-informed care understands Animals as psychological and spiritual beings whose bodies and minds are forced to live in unnatural conditions. Curricula of The Kerulos’ School of Trauma-informed Care for Animals are designed and taught by experts from a variety of fields. Courses, internships and Animal Care Professional Certification Programs are evidence-based and grounded in science, and somatic and contemplative studies.

“Love, by its very nature, is unworldly,

and it is for this reason rather than its rarity

that it is not only apolitical but antipolitical,

perhaps the most powerful of all antipolitical forces.”

– Hannah Arendt