Pet-owners and animal-lovers instinctively know that animals heal. This book offers the evidence, drawing widely on scientific discoveries, history, and Indigenous knowledge.

We meet a pot-bellied pig who saved her owner’s life, lions who guarded a girl from kidnappers, dolphins and whales rescuing people in danger, and dogs who can smell cancer and phone the Emergency Services.

Animal sounds, from insects to birdsong and the purring of cats, are directly medicinal and their presence can heal the pain of loneliness. Animals, including donkeys, can be natural therapists for the hurt psyche, alleviating trauma, fear and depression.

In this original, revelatory and exuberant book, Jay Griffiths explores how animals can have a role in every level of healing, from the individual to the collective, guiding us in how we might create societies that are healthier, fairer and kinder. Wolves may be teachers of ethics; monkeys and dogs can object to unfairness and bees take collective decisions. Animals are irresistible medicine for a healthy culture, animating the arts with spectacular vitality and verve, as poetry knows.

Open-hearted, playful and wise, How Animals Heal Us puts animals at the heart of a restorative vision of health.

“Humans can never get enough of animals. We know they are just like us, and also completely different. Now imagine meeting someone on a train who turns to you and starts telling you the most amazing stories about animals. Each one makes you go “wow!” And she can talk for hours—eloquently, magically. This is Jay Griffiths. Then she puts it all in a wonderful book, and you can return to these tales again and again. If animals can’t heal us, I don’t know what can.” – David Rothenberg, author of Secret Sound of Ponds 

“Jay Griffiths helped redefine activism for a generation, combining detailed research with a poet’s flair for language. Her works defy categorisation and fizz with original ideas and excitement.”- Byline Times

” Weaving humour, empathy, pathos, and so, so much more, Griffiths shows that animals are braided throughout the human psyche. An absolute fountain of fact, culture, and raw animal power!” – Carl Safina, Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe

“Pleasingly unpredictable, deeply researched and highly readable, this is a moving and exquisitely written exploration of how we live with, and are shaped by, different creatures from tigers to teddy bears.” – Caroline Eden

“Evocative and heart-warming, this brilliantly researched book is joyful, generous and wise in equal measure, and always written with spirit and flair.” – John Lister-Kaye