Decoding Compassion: Reflections on the Animal Protection Residential Workshop 2026

The name “Decoding Compassion” means understanding compassion in your own way — discovering what it truly means to you and transforming that understanding into a personal passion for protecting animals. That was the idea behind Decoding Compassion: Animal Protection Residential Workshop 2026, a seven-day residential programme that I created and led in Sri Lanka from July 15-21, 2026 as my project through the Center for Animal Law Studies’ Global Ambassador Program.

When I first began thinking about Decoding Compassion, I knew I did not want to organise an animal law workshop with hours and hours of lectures. I wanted participants to question what compassion for animals means and to consider whether compassion alone is enough to transform the ways in which humans understand and treat other animals.

Rather than limiting the programme to lawyers or law students, I wanted Decoding Compassion to represent the broader field of animal protection. The 27 participants who eventually joined the workshop came from seven countries: Sri Lanka, India, Canada, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, Greece, and Turkey. Each participant brought diverse academic, professional, and personal perspectives to the conversation. Participants also represented a range of interests in animal law, animal welfare, animal rights, wildlife conservation, veganism, advocacy, and other areas of animal protection.

To make the workshop as accessible as possible, I used a call for applications process. The response exceeded my expectations. The 81 applications demonstrated something I had hoped for but could not be certain existed when I conceived the project: a robust interest in animal protection among a new generation of people in Sri Lanka and beyond. Following a highly competitive selection process, I identified 27 passionate and aspiring people who were eager to learn about animal protection.

The residential format was an important part of the programme. I wanted participants to have the opportunity to share ideas over meals, continue difficult conversations after a lecture, discover differences in their perspectives, and develop friendships. An online format, or even meeting in person only for the formal sessions, may have meant an abrupt ending to these important discussions. Through the residential nature of the workshop, participants also had the opportunity to continue thought-provoking discussions beyond format sessions, fostering deeper exchanges of ideas, perspectives, and experiences in an informal and collaborative setting.

Most of our resource persons who conducted lectures were people actively involved in the animal advocacy movement in the South Asian region, with several of them being fellow alums of the Lewis & Clark Animal Law Advanced Degree Program. Resource persons included academics, a practising lawyer, the founding director of an animal rescue NGO, and a manager of a vegan food production company. These experts grounded the conversations and shared expertise. Their involvement also created opportunities for participants to expand their networks, and also enriched my own network.

Through lectures, presentations, and discussions, participants explored a wide range of  issues affecting animals and examined animal protection from legal, ethical, scientific, social and practical perspectives. Each participant also had an opportunity to present an animal protection issue from their country on the first day. Their observations demonstrated that this emerging group of advocates had unfortunately identified many forms of cruelty, while the ensuing conversations underscored how much still needs to change.

One of the most important aspects of the workshop was its international character. Although the central aim was to build a group of people who could advance animal protection in Sri Lanka, the challenges faced by animals are not confined by national borders. Participants were able to compare legal systems, advocacy strategies, cultural practices, and experiences from different countries. These comparisons served as a reminder that there is no single formula for protecting animals. To be effective, solutions must be sensitive to local realities, while international networks can provide knowledge, solidarity and new possibilities.

After long days of lectures and discussions, participants came together to build community through movie nights, karaoke, conversations, and laughter. Some had travelled from other countries; for some, this was their first time in Sri Lanka. For many, it was their first experience of living with such a diverse group of people united by a common concern for animals. Those moments mattered. Movements are not only built only through conferences, laws and research papers, but also through relationships, trust, friendships and the feeling that we are not working alone.

Food was another important part of the experience. From the beginning, I wanted the workshop to demonstrate that veganism could be approached not simply as an abstract ethical position, but as something practical, culturally meaningful and enjoyable. Sharing vegan Sri Lankan food became an unexpected but powerful way of sharing culture too.

Our learning also extended beyond the classroom through two field visits, one to Pet Expo 2026, held at Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, Colombo, and the other to Water World, Kelaniya. This observation in the field allowed participants to engage with animal protection issues in more practical settings and to reflect critically on how the law is applied in practice. These experiences generated some of the most thought-provoking discussions of the week because they encouraged participants to connect the theories and principles discussed during the lectures with the realities they encountered outside the classroom.

One particularly heart-touching moment was seeing one of our participants adopt a rescued puppy at Pet Expo 2026. For me, this was incredibly special. After discussing animal protection, witnessing compassion translate into a concrete decision to give one animal a home was a beautiful reminder that meaningful change can begin with a single animal.

The workshop also coincided with an important development in Sri Lankan animal protection law. On July 17, the Animal Welfare Bill was “gazetted” (officially published). For a group of people gathered specifically to discuss the future of animal protection in Sri Lanka, this was a particularly significant moment. It provided an immediate reminder that the conversations taking place in our lecture rooms were connected to developments occurring in the real world.

As the week progressed, I watched participants move from being individuals with different professional identities and interests towards becoming something closer to a community truly caring for animals. They challenged one another, supported one another and, importantly, began identifying possibilities for future collaboration in the field of animal protection. This was one of the outcomes I had hoped for, but seeing it happen in practice was something else entirely.

Organising Decoding Compassion also taught me a great deal. Bringing together 27 people from seven countries for an intensive residential programme was challenging. There were logistical difficulties, unexpected changes, and countless details that had to be managed. But the experience reaffirmed my belief that Sri Lanka has enormous potential to develop a stronger, more interdisciplinary animal protection movement.

I began the project hoping to create a group of people who could contribute to protecting animals in Sri Lanka. I ended the week with something that feels even more valuable: a network of people who have shared experiences, knowledge, questions, meals, and memories and who now have the possibility of continuing this work together.

Decoding Compassion was never intended to provide all the answers. If anything, I hope it encourages participants to ask better questions: How can we change the world, at least for one animal? What does meaningful legal protection look like? Whose voices are missing from our conversations? How can law, science, advocacy, education, policy, veganism and other disciplines work together? And, ultimately, what does it really mean to extend compassion beyond our own species?

Perhaps the most important thing we decoded during that week was not compassion itself but the power of coming together to turn compassion into action. The workshop may have ended, but I do not see Decoding Compassion as a finished project. I see it as a beginning — a first attempt to bring together people in Sri Lanka who care about animals and to create the foundations for something larger. I am grateful to the Center for Animal Law Studies for making it possible and supporting my vision.

About the Author: Dulki Seethawaka is an attorney, senior executive researcher at the Centre for Environmental Law and Policy of the University of Colombo, and associate editor for both the Journal of Animal Rights Law and the South Asian Journal of Environmental Law and Policy. Dulki graduated with honors from our Animal Law LLM program in 2025, where she was also awarded our Outstanding Animal Law LLM Graduate Award. In addition to her work as a researcher, she recently published Defending Captive and Domestic Animals in Sri Lanka, the first book of its kind in Sri Lanka.

The Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) was founded in 2008 with a mission to educate the next generation of animal law advocates and advance animal protection through the law. With vision and bold risk-taking, CALS has since developed into a world-renowned animal law epicenter. CALS’ Alumni-in-Action from 35+ countries are making a difference for animals around the world. The advanced degree program is offered in-person and online. CALS is a self-funded Center within the law school operating under the Lewis & Clark College 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, and is able to provide these educational opportunities through donations and grants.