Kindred Spirits: Transformative Human-Animal Relationships

The study of human-nonhuman (animal) relationships—anthrozoology— is a "hot" and rapidly growing transdisciplinary field. Recently, Ann Benvenuti's book called Kindred Spirits: One Animal Family arrived. When I began reading it, I immediately realized that news about her latest work needed to be shared with a broad global audience—both because of its scope and because it focused not only on the nonhumans who benefited from humans who care about them, but also on the moments of transformative contact between the humans and the other animals and how all their lives were changed.¹ It's an excellent sequel to her Spirit Unleashed: Reimagining Human-Animal Relations that was nominated for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction. I'm pleased Ann could take the time to answer a few questions about her landmark book. Here's what she had to say.

Why did you write Kindred Spirits?

I conceived Kindred Spirits halfway along a walk across northern England. I had stopped in the town of Kirkby Stephen, where I was surprised to hear brightly colored macaws conversing raucously on the slate roof of a house. The macaws, it turned out, are town mascots who roam freely during the day from the open aviaries of a parrot conservation center. I learned the story of the center’s founder John Strutt, who had loved these birds and who had transitioned from a hunter to a dedicated rescue and conservation worker. I knew in that moment that I wanted to write about humans who work to rescue other kinds of animals, and about the animals themselves.

My encounter with the macaws was in 2016, the year that the Barnum and Bailey circus quit using elephants as performers because of public pressure. It struck me that “The Greatest Show on Earth” was being replaced by The Greatest Story on Earth: the story of the rapid change in human culture, the growing love in humans for other animals, and the perhaps even more surprising, stories of their interest in us.

How does your book relate to your background and general areas of interest, and what are some of your major messages?

There are three things about me that go all the way back to childhood. First, I was loved by a nonhuman animal, a beagle named Sherry. Second, I learned to question everything, including why Sherry would be considered a lesser being than me. Third, I have always been compelled by the question, “What is it like to be you?” I grew up to be a psychologist and professor of critical thinking. Gathering stories of people who were changed by their encounters with other kinds of animals and observing the animals more closely naturally flowed from my lifelong interests.

For example, on my daily walks, I began to notice a large dog, often sleeping near a stone wall warmed by the morning sun. He looks healthy, not mangy or dehydrated, no evidence of injuries. I thought he must belong to someone who let him have the run of our rural Italian neighborhood.

But as I watched Jack day after day and through the change of seasons, I concluded that he did not belong to anyone. I came to see that he was a feral dog who had developed a creative life strategy: befriending kept dogs. Jack charms the neighborhood dogs and they, in turn, share their food, water, and shelter.

I recall from my training as a psychologist in the measurement of intelligence that the definition of intelligence is the ability to develop strategies to solve the problems of living. So why compare Jack’s intelligence to that of a two-year-old human? Jack, I conclude, clearly solves the problems of his dog life brilliantly.

Who is your intended audience?

Kindred Spirits is a celebration of humans who love other animals and of the animals whom we love. I wanted to tell some of the stories that are part of this bigger picture of humans coming home to a huge and diverse family of life on earth because the little stories within the bigger story are what gets our attention, and because the bigger story is both scientifically correct and emotionally satisfying. Jack isn’t just an abstract argument for canine intelligence. He is a character like the many whose stories I tell, a protagonist in his world; he grabs our imaginations and touches our hearts.

How does your book differ from others that are concerned with some of the same general topics?

This book is about the ways in which humans and other animals alike are transformed in our encounters with each other. It assumes that animals have insides and people are willing to be amazed by the qualities of others—by the seismic communications that elephants use over twenty-mile distances using their feet and by dung beetles using the Milky Way to navigate. When we stop judging others according to how they are like us—when we begin to see them as who they are in their own contexts—we are opened to the array of liveliness on this planet. And when they are curious about us, when they sometimes want to help us, we cannot help but be changed.

Are you hopeful that things will change for the better as people come to realize that we are all "one animal family"?

Yes, I am optimistic, even as I feel the clock ticking with regard to planetary ecosystems. A simple fact of psychology is that behavior is affectively motivated. I am a staunch defender of critical thinking and that capacity tells me how important feelings are.

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Policymakers fret about how hard it is to get people to change their behavior when the facts require it, as with climate change. But facts don’t motivate us, feelings do. Engagement of our emotions with other animals can allow us to make behavioral changes at every level, from what we eat to how we relate to nature—politically, culturally, and religiously. Loving other animals connects us to the world by our heartstrings and there is hope in that simple fact.