BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Humanities and Social Sciences
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1681087
Auditing Farm Animal Refuge: Management and Welfare of Livestock in Disaster Situations
Provisionally accepted
Sillas M. S. Silva1*
Cássia C. V. Del Valle1Vanessa M. Reis2Carolina R. Bonatto1Gislene F. S. R. Fournier1Felipe Bertelli1Alex Castro1- 1AECOM Brazil Fauna Team, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- 2Specialist in animal rescue, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
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The collapse of mining dams in Brazil exposed significant deficiencies in emergency planning for livestock, resulting in prolonged vulnerability of cattle in disaster-affected areas. This study presents a pioneering initiative that implemented a temporary refuge for approximately 575 cattle, incorporating veterinary oversight, nutritional and reproductive management, and behavioral monitoring. The initiative was developed within the framework of the Fauna Term of Covenant, an institutional agreement that ensured independent technical auditing and legal accountability. This experience offers a replicable model for protecting livestock in socio-environmental crises. It also illustrates how veterinary and animal sciences intersect with governance, ethics, and environmental justice, emphasizing that effective animal welfare in disaster contexts requires more than technical solutions. It demands sustained institutional commitment and interdisciplinary collaboration. The findings contribute to the development of future frameworks for integrating production animals into emergency response and public policy.
Keywords: Animal Welfare, cattle refuge, farm animal refuge, livestock disaster response, emergency management, veterinary auditing, animal science auditing, governance
Received: 06 Aug 2025; Accepted: 07 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Silva, Del Valle, Reis, Bonatto, Fournier, Bertelli and Castro. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sillas M. S. Silva, sillas.silva@aecom.com
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