“The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.”
With that Hippocratic epigraph Vint Virga introduces us to his personal odyssey illuminating the connections and reciprocal relationships of all living beings. Once in private small animal practice, he expanded his horizons into behavioral medicine, following an epiphany with a critically injured patient (Pongo) which will resonate with many whose life course has taken them down the veterinary path. Even before that, as those of us of a certain vintage will remember, like Virga, significant moments in our training, such as the lessons of our “surgery dogs,” not just the honing of our surgical skills but also our compassion.
The book is a memoir of unforgettable patients in homes and zoos whose behavioral problems and their management illustrate the gamut of their emotional lives. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, feline hyperesthesia syndrome, and aggressive fits are but a few of the diagnostic rubrics treated. The book is meant for a general audience, so emphasis is on behavioral treatments without specifics of pharmaceutical interventions where indicated.
Via behavioral anecdotes, often accompanied by complementary parables, Virga demonstrates the communality of human and animal minds and emotions — from domestic settings with dogs and cats providing exemplars of sensitivity, mindfulness, adaptability, forgiveness and presence to zoos with ocelots exemplifying responsiveness to wolves and whales revealing their expressivity and clouded leopards manifesting integrity.
The author’s language and turn of phrase are often quite lyrical which makes for a delightful read. Each chapter finishes with a philosophical flourish making the essential point.
A recent article by Alex Halberstadt (1) gives more insight into Virga’s zoological ventures. To flesh out the characteristics of emotions and mental states, I would recommend Temple Grandin’s Animals Make Us Human (2) as a definitive companion to Virga’s treatise.
And to round out the discussion, especially to coax those who might still be hesitant to accept Virga’s and Grandin’s premises with respect to animal awareness and emotion despite decades of irrefutable evidence, I would like to proffer some readings by Donald R. Griffin, a pioneer in the field of cognitive ethology; his eminently readable and persuasive texts (3–5) would be excellent additions to anyone’s reading list and intellectual armamentarium.
References
- 1.Halberstadt A. Zoo Animals and Their Discontents. The New York Times Magazine. Jul 6, 2014. [Last accessed December 10, 2014]. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/magazine/zoo-animals-and-their-discontents.html.
- 2.Grandin T, Johnson C. Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals. Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 2009. [Google Scholar]
- 3.Griffin DR. The Question of Animal Awareness: Evolutionary Continuity of Mental Experience. New York: Rockefeller University Press; 1976. [Google Scholar]
- 4.Griffin DR. Animal Thinking. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; 1984. [Google Scholar]
- 5.Griffin DR. Animal Minds: Beyond Cognition to Consciousness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2001. [Google Scholar]