Our Symphony with Animals by Aysha Akhtar

In her eye-opening and touching account, Aysha Akhtar takes us from one example to another of animals making our lives better. Akhtar's book draws a sobering but hopeful picture of what has been done and what remains to be done to improve animals' lives.

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, author of 'How to Be a Good Creature'Īkhtar uses personal childhood trauma to launch a thoughtful discussion of the extent of, and limits to, human empathy toward animals. 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.

Our Symphony with Animals is a beautiful, compassionate, and important book. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Our Sympyhony with Animals is the definitive account for why our relationships with animals matter. In equal measure, the love we give to animals biologically reverberates back to us. Violence against animals goes against our nature. Humans are neurologically designed to empathize with animals. Akhtar's own story, a 'skinny brown girl from a poor family' who was bullied in school and sexually 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 on both of their abuse.

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. When we include animals in our circle of empathy, we not only liberate animals, we also liberate ourselves. Aysha Akhtar reveals how empathy for animals is the next step in our species' moral evolution and a vital component of human health. A leader in the fields of animal ethics and neurology examines the rich human-animal connection and how interspecies empathy enriches our well-being.ĭeftly 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.ĭr.

Our Symphony with Animals by Aysha Akhtar