Health
How Animals Heal Us and Nurture Kinder and Fairer Societies
Jay Griffiths offers a refreshing vision of how animals heal us.
Posted June 3, 2025 Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
Key points
- Relying on science, history, and Indigenous knowledge, Jay Griffiths' playful new book is a wonderful read.
- For many people, the presence of animals in their lives provides a wide variety of important benefits.
- The more we know of animals, the more we see how utterly we depend on them.
An ever-growing body of science, along with numerous stories, clearly shows that, for many people, the presence of nonhuman animals (animals) in their lives provides a wide variety of important benefits. These nonhumans often make them feel better and more positive about themselves and energize them to do more for other nonhumans and humans with whom they interact. These are among the many reasons why I was pleased to read Jay Griffiths' new book titled How Animals Heal Us. John Lister-Kaye, author of At the Water's Edge: A Walk in the Wild, captures the essence of Jay's book when he writes, "Evocative and heart-warming, this brilliantly researched book is joyful, generous and wise in equal measure, and always written with spirit and flair." Here's what she had to say about her exuberant, playful, and deeply inspirational book.
Marc Bekoff: Why did you write How Animals Heal Us?
Jay Griffiths: Being with animals, I feel my best self. I'm gleeful and beguiled, and also committed to listening to them and taking them seriously. I've personally known the healing of animals for states of depression, loneliness, and bereavement, and I've felt the empathy that animals can offer. More: I wanted to consider health in the widest sense, not just the psychological and physical well-being of the individual, but out into social health, including political, cultural, and, indeed, spiritual vitality.
MB: How does your book relate to your general areas of interest?
JG: My work has often considered the living world manifestly and jubilantly good for us. I have been influenced by Indigenous philosophies of time and wildness in my previous work, and I'm interested in the profound Indigenous knowledge of animals at the heart of true health. I'm also fascinated by the psyche: how we curate our souls, and how the mind works. I'm thrilled at the studies that show a particular part of the brain lighting up just for animals: They are transformative for us..
MB: Who is this book for?
JG: Just about everyone. Those who know what it is to love an animal and be loved by them and who would like to know more about the why.1
MB: What are some of the most intriguing lines of enquiry in your book?
JG: Many animals laugh. Lambs and ravens play king of the castle. Many animals, including dolphins, play tag, and turtles play tug-of-war. Arguably, we humans learned many of our games from the animals, and play is good for the health.
Animals comfort the abused. If a person is suicidal, the most important thing may be to get a dog to them as quickly as possible. Animals may heal our psyches in animal-assisted therapy; their nonjudgmental presence aids the young; horses and donkeys can lead children with autism toward speech. Animals may decrease stress and anxiety, and lessen the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Cortisol? Down. Oxytocin? Up.
My book tracks the studies that demonstrate animal medicine, including the dogs who can detect certain cancers and give their humans warning of an incipient diabetic incident. Birdsong is an antidepressant, and the sound of cats' purring is physically healing for us.
Assistance dogs and service dogs can phone for emergency services and help with PTSD and with bipolar disorder. There are animals, including whales, dolphins, and indeed a pig and a parrot, and lions, who have deliberately saved the lives of humans. They can attend us in illness and be excellent yoga instructors. The book includes the tender experience of a dying woman who "ordered her death from a bee," convinced that when she didn't know how to die, but knew she must, a bee was showing her the way, consoling her.
It also looks at how some creatures act politically, the honeybees practising democracy, the red deer who "vote," the ravens who cooperate with wolves, and the fieldfares who act collectively to defend themselves against the hooded crow. (How? By flying above them and doing a synchronized poop.)
It considers how vital animals are in art, from cave paintings to the influence of birds. It considers how vital animals are in art, from cave paintings to the influence of birds on human music. It looks at the extraordinary art created by animals, including the gorilla who was taught sign language and who painted, titling one of her works "Pink Pink Stink Nice Drink."
The animals are so important to our cultural health that we can consider them foster parents to thought itself, as we humans, late to the party, could indicate an animal to carry our meaning: a cheetah or hare for speed; an eagle for vision; a bull for power.
The book also looks at how fairy tales and medicine stories give crucial healing roles to the animals: At the ancient level, cultures know that the animals are necessary remedies for us from childhood. Teddy bears are more than toys to a child: they seem "alive," like a talisman or a soul-healer.
I tell the true story of a dog calling to another dog for back-up to help a sick human, a gorgeous example of the truth of the line from 101 Dalmatians: "The humans have tried everything. Now it's up to us dogs and the twilight bark."
MB: As people learn more of this, will we come to appreciate how valuable animals are to us?
JG: The more we know of animals, the more we see how utterly we depend on them. Bees, so damaged by neonicotinoids, give us life itself by pollinating so much of our food. The buzzing of bees is good for us as individuals, too, aiding the immune system and calming us. We owe the animals everything, and with them we may be in a state of gratitude and grace.
References
In conversation with Jay Griffiths, the author of many books, such as Wild: An Elemental Journey, Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape, Tristimania, and Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time. She has won the Discover award for the best first-time author in the United States, the inaugural Orion award, and the Hay Festival International Fellowship.
1. The curious. Those who would be delighted by knowing that many animals laugh, and that baby jumping spiders dream. Those who suspect there is always more to animals than is generally acknowledged. Those who would be amazed at the "waterfall dances" of chimpanzees, their rituals that thrum with a charge of pure spirit that invigorates our own. Those who care about health, intuiting that birdsong is an antidepressant and that pets are good for us, and who may want more information to back up the intuition. The sound of cats' purring, for instance, has been shown to be physically healing for our bodies, aiding pain management, healing ligaments, and increasing bone strength. The socially aware, who feel that unfairness is unhealthy, and who may be intrigued by the way that some animals, particularly dogs and primates, have a strong sense of justice, which contributes to the health of society. Those who care about morality and may be delighted that we humans seem to have learned ethics from the wolves and may be impressed that some police dogs can demonstrate a greater sense of conscience than their own human officers. The lonely. (Me too!) This book contains prescriptions for us, through animal communication and their tender company. It is also for those concerned that we are becoming lonely as a species, alienated from livingkind.
What Birds Teach Us About the Value of Family and Friendship; What Birds Teach Us About Life, Social Change, and Nature; How Birds and Nature Rewild Our Hearts and Souls; An Avian Epiphany: How Relationships With Birds Made Us Human.
