Our Symphony with Animals: On Health, Empathy, and Our Shared Destinies

by Aysha Akhtar, Carl Safina (Foreword by)

Overview

A leader in the fields of animal ethics and neurology, Dr. Aysha Akhtar examines the rich human-animal connection and how interspecies empathy enriches our well-being.

Deftly combining medicine, social history and personal experience, Our Symphony with Animals is the first book by a physician to show that humans and animals have a shared destiny—our well-being is deeply entwined.

Dr. Akhtar reveals how empathy for animals is the next step in our species’ moral evolution and a vital component of human health. When we include animals in our circle of empathy, we not only liberate animals, we also liberate ourselves. Drawing on the accounts of a varied cast of characters—a former mobster, a pediatrician, an industrial chicken farmer, a serial killer, and a deer hunter—to reveal what happens when we both break and forge bonds with animals.

Interwoven is Dr. Akhtar’s own story, an immigrant who was bullied in school and abused by her uncle. Feeling abandoned by humanity, it was only when she met Sylvester, a dog who had also been abused, that she find the strength to sound the alarm for them both.

Humans are neurologically designed to empathize with animals. Violence against animals goes against our nature. In equal measure, the love we give to animals biologically reverberates back to us. Our Symphony with Animals is the definitive account for why our relationships with animals matter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643130705
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	05/07/2019
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Aysha Akhtar, M.D., M.P.H., is double Board-Certified in both Neurology and Preventive Medicine and is the Deputy Director of the Army's Traumatic Brain Injury Program. Previously, she worked for the Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats of the Food and Drug Administration. She is a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Public Health Service, is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, and is a Consultant Editor for the Journal of Animal Ethics. She is the author of Animals and Public Health and lives in Maryland with her husband Patrick and their ornery feline, Silos.

Carl Safina's work has been recognized with MacArthur, Pew, and Guggenheim Fellowships, and his writing has won Orion, Lannan, and National Academies literary awards and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals. He has a PhD in ecology from Rutgers University and he hosted the 10-part PBS series Saving the Ocean with Carl Safina. He is the author of seven books, most recently Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel.

Table of Contents

Foreword Carl Safina ix

Prologue xv

Part 1 Healing with Animals 1

1 What Is Home? 3

2 Finding Our Voices 35

3 Humanizing Ourselves 67

Part 2 Breaking with Animals 101

4 The Making of a Murderer 103

5 It's Just an Animal 138

6 DO We Hurt with Animals? 172

Part 3 Joining with Animals 209

7 Standing with Animals 211

8 Friends 235

Afterword 267

Notes 269

Acknowledgments 297

Index 299

Editorial Reviews

03/11/2019

In this notable volume, neurologist Akhtar (Animals and Public Health) uses personal childhood trauma to launch a thoughtful discussion of the extent of, and limits to, human empathy toward animals. Empathy, she notes, helps people to lead better lives, since “we now recognize that how we interact with and treat one another... influence our health.” She combines a broader investigation into cases of animal rescue and abuse with personal experience, beginning by recounting being sexually molested at age 5 by a family friend, an ordeal which she credits her grandparents’ dog, Sylvester, with getting her through. She “had never known an animal before,” but bonded instantly with the German shepherd mix, who gave her the courage to eventually stop her tormenter. Later sections deal with animals lost or displaced after natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, in order to suggest how losing pets can be just as devastating as losing humans. Akhtar also explores the living conditions of animals used for food, giving stark and disturbing details of hens jam-packed into cages. She concludes with suggestions on how to make a difference, such as by donating to or volunteering for animal rescue groups. Akhtar’s book draws a sobering but hopeful picture of what has been done and what remains to be done to improve animals’ lives. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"After reading Our Symphony with Animals, I suggest you spend some time having a friendly talk with a sweet dog like Akhtar’s childhood friend Sylvester. It will do both of you good."

Washington Independent Review of Books

"A memoir, an informational text, and a paean to the joys of sharing our lives with animals."

Bookreporter

"In her deeply personal and highly readable book, full of stories that surely will move readers all over the place, Dr. Aysha Akhtar seamlessly weaves humorous and touching moments along with the latest research on animal-human relationships. She shows why the development of close relationships with other animals that are filled with trust, respect, compassion, empathy, and love are mutually beneficial and a win-win for all. Highly recommended for a global audience."

Marc Bekoff

"A timely and necessary book that sheds light on how far animals will go to help us, and how much better we need to treat them in return. This deeply affecting book reveals just how important animals are to human health and happiness."

Shelf Awareness

Our Symphony with Animals is a beautiful, compassionate, and important book. Dr. Akhtar deftly weaves her personal and professional experiences into the scientific story of how humans are designed to bond with animals—and the cost, to us and to the rest of animate creation, of breaking that bond. Her wonderful book is at once intimate and global, and its message is crucial: empathy with our fellow animals is vital for the health of humans and non-humans alike.

Sy Montgomery

"An important and illuminating work."

Booklist

2019-03-17
Why bonding with animals makes us better human beings.

Neurologist Akhtar (Animals and Public Health, 2012), deputy director of the Army's Traumatic Brain Injury Program and a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service, makes an impassioned and moving argument that empathy with animals deeply affects humans' health. Drawing on interviews with a wide range of individuals, including prisoners, a serial killer, a vegetarian chicken farmer, animal researchers, and victims of PTSD; scientific studies; and her own experience as a sexually abused and bullied young girl who bonded with an abused dog, the author examines the physical, emotional, and psychological responses that occur when humans connect with any animal, not only common house pets. Animals, she writes, "calm us by lowering our blood pressure, heart rate, and stress hormones. We relax with animals" because they "defuse a lot of the human-generated pressure in our lives." The beneficial response, one psychologist suggests, comes from the release of oxytocin, a hormone that "increases social interaction, generosity, bonding, and attachment. It also improves trust and decreases aggression, fear, and hyperarousal." Many organizations, writes Akhtar, promote human-animal connection, such as K9s for Warriors, a nonprofit group that "pairs dogs with military veterans who have PTSD"; Feeding Pets of the Homeless; Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, which rescues farm animals; and FORWARD, an organization that establishes cat sanctuaries in prisons, where inmates care for and socialize abandoned or abused cats. The cats, Akhtar notes, "provide the only physical contact and affection many of the inmates receive." The author's research uncovers much animal cruelty at the hands of individuals and in the livestock industry, which she describes in sickening detail. "It is the same mind-set that encourages cruelty toward animals and toward other humans," she asserts, whereas empathy encourages kindness: "Animals remind us that the world is larger than us. They can teach us to look beyond the racism, poverty, and cruelty in our lives." A brief appendix offers readers suggestions for positive change.

A heartfelt call for compassion for all living species.

Kirkus Reviews

"In her eye-opening and touching account, Aysha Akhtar takes us from one example to another of animals making our lives better. Being there for us without judgment regardless of the circumstances, animals have an immense healing power that science is only beginning to grasp."

Frans de Waal

"This is a superb, captivating book. Combining memoir, investigative journalism, and science, Aysha Akhtar has produced a marvelous exploration of our troubled, evolving relationship with animals. Themes of vulnerability, injustice, redemption, and love are woven into a moving narrative that drew me in and kept me hungrily turning the pages."

Jonathan Balcombe

"An important and illuminating work."

Booklist

"In a heartfelt and urgent call to action, Aysha Akhtar shows how the lives of humans and animals are intertwined."

Gregory Berns