How Animals Heal Us
How Animals Heal Us by Jay Griffiths, published by Penguin Random House on June 5, 2025, is a 384-page exploration of the profound healing effects of our relationships with animals. This book draws on scientific discoveries, historical accounts, and Indigenous knowledge to present a compelling narrative about how animals contribute to human well-being. Through various stories, it illustrates the remarkable ways animals have impacted lives, from a pot-bellied pig saving its owner to dolphins rescuing people in peril.
Readers will find a rich tapestry of examples demonstrating the medicinal qualities of animal interactions, including the therapeutic effects of animal sounds and the role of pets in alleviating loneliness and trauma. Griffiths delves into the broader implications of these relationships, suggesting that animals can guide us toward healthier, fairer societies. By examining the ethical lessons taught by wolves and the collective decision-making of bees, this book emphasizes the vital role animals play not only in individual healing but also in fostering a more compassionate culture.
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‘A moving, essential book . . . Nobody writes about Nature with more beauty and grace than Jay Griffiths’ Brian Eno
From celebrated author Jay Griffiths comes a unique and heartfelt insight into the healing nature of our relationship with animals
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.
‘A wild and vital treasure trove of stories, woven together with Griffiths’ s characteristic exuberance and joyfully untamed mind’ Helen Jukes, author of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Opening
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