Can Animals Help Us to Become More Human?
- Pathways of Possibility
- Jun 12
- 12 min read
Deirdre Chitwood has a passion for animals. She's lived with them, cared for them and worked with them for years. Here she shares her observations, thoughts and beliefs about how animals and our interactions with them can teach us about life, and even help us to be better humans.
Learning from Nature and the Planet
I believe that everything in Creation is pointing the way for us humans to be, and she does this through nature and the planet. The planet is like a Great Nursery, and we are like children trying to find out how we can learn and be in tune with the way things are meant to be.
We can see it in the trees and the flora, and in the animals, or the little people of the planet as I like to call them. For example, a tree or plant will throw out hundreds of seeds and fruit, but only a few will make it to full growth. Isn’t there a lesson in there for us, to keep trying, to not get put off if we don’t get a result immediately?
My passion is animals, so I find there are many ways that animals show me how to be a better human. Just to be clear, I am not saying that the potential for animals is higher or more than humans. Of course, our potential is much greater. After all, we can compose music, write poetry and create great works of art, which animals cannot do. We can also wonder about questions in life such as “What caused me to be?” or “What is my purpose in life and how do I find it?”. Animals do not have these abilities – but they do have incredible abilities and levels of sensitivity that are often more superior to ours.
For example, a pig’s sense of smell is 2,000 times greater than ours. However, they cannot make choices in the same way that we do. They can, obviously, choose, or to be more accurate, “select” which way to go or what to eat, within their specie boundaries, but they cannot choose to be a better squirrel or a better cat. They are perfect as they are and completely fulfill their purpose of whatever species they are, but it is automatic. On the other hand, we can decide how we want to be, how we want to respond, and which decisions to make with another person or situation which will either add to our humanness or detract from it.
Observing Animals and Their Natures
I was on a webinar taken by a holistic vet recently, and she was speaking about her 20-year-old cat who had just passed, and she said one of the things she had done after the cat had died was to think about the qualities that the cat had demonstrated and then she decided, in order to honor the life of the cat, to incorporate those qualities into her own life. Qualities such as tolerance, being good-natured, caring when others were ill and so on.
I think more and more people are acknowledging that animals do have natures and qualities that we humans could do well to adopt. How often do you hear people say how their dog is their faithful friend, he always loves me whatever I look like, he is always there to greet me at the door when I come home, my pet is so forgiving? An animal will rarely say, unless they are ill or exhausted, “I’m having a bad day, so go away and leave me alone.” They are representatives of a natural planetary essence that is always bright and at the ready.
Which brings up the question, “Why do we have pets?” There is obviously a good reason because 66% of households in the United States have at least one, and in some countries like Argentina and Brazil it is more.
It is as if we know they are demonstrating and showing us the way to be. I think this is one of the reasons people have pets, especially as so much of our time is spent on computers these days, which takes us further away from what is natural. On one level it is because they make us take time out, to take them for walks, to play with them, to give them affection—but on another level, I think it might also be that something in us feels they show us a more natural way to be. To have more consideration and kindness.
For example, mother dogs make the best mothers to puppies, giving them just the right balance of love and direction - reprimanding them only if they need it. Puppies who are allowed to grow up with their mothers become the most balanced and confident of dogs. Animals can bring those qualities out in us if we choose to have them.
A simple exercise you can do is to take one species at a time, say a horse, and look for all the qualities you can see that they have such as grace, gentleness, strength, tolerance, etc. I find these kinds of exercises help to open my eyes to what animals can teach me.
Drawings by Deirdre Chitwood
It is not only domesticated animals but those in the wild that have lessons for us. Think what dedicated parents animals are to their offspring, sometimes working to exhaustion to feed them, as in the case of many species of birds. Or a herd of elephants who form a circle to protect their young calves from predators. Turid Rugaas, a Norwegian dog trainer and behaviorist writes in her book On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals, “A wolf pack is created by a pair of wolves who have cubs. The cubs grow up with the most patient and loving parents anyone can wish for, and in return they will love and have a natural respect for their parents lasting their whole lives. They are fed first, before the adults even think about eating, and they grow up in a world of love, safety and care.” There are countless examples.
Bringing Out Our Humanity
There are also other ways to look at how animals can help bring out our humanity.
For example, I was watching a TV documentary on PBS (Nature) titled, “Saving the Animals of Ukraine” a few months ago. At one point they were interviewing a woman who managed a shelter there. She had been and was going through unimaginable difficulties and danger trying to look after the dogs and cats, to keep them safe from the incessant bombing. The interviewer asked her why she did this, why she cared about animals when so many of her own people were suffering and dying. And I found her reply very moving.
She said, “Why do we save pets? To remain human. To save animals is to remain human.”
Kerry Bowman, a Bioethicist, was also interviewed. He said, “This belief that our moral platform is no longer relevant in war time is very dangerous. We have to hang on to what our core values are and what I see in the Ukraine war is those core values often include compassion for non-human life.”
A few days after the war started, one man began rescuing animals from bombed buildings. He said, “When I started saving animals, this saved me. When we help the defenseless, we remain human. We think we rescue animals, actually animals ‘rescue’ us.”
There was a cat named Shafa who somehow survived for 60 days, seven stories up in a bombed apartment block without food or water. Her story of endurance was so remarkable that she became an emblem of hope for the Ukrainian people.
Animals in Service
Something else that came to my attention was about a prison program in the United States where the inmates had been paired with a shelter dog. They cared for them 24/7, fed them, walked them, and took care of their every needs. In the program they spoke about it in the way of giving the inmates something else to think about, other than themselves, and that it made them more responsible. But inside that, it was teaching these men to have care, patience, understanding and kindness for another life. Perhaps for the first time, developing a relationship based on trust. The dogs grew to trust the inmates and the inmates learnt about trust, having to earn it by being consistent and regular with their dog’s care and feeding times, and by giving them attention and affection. The dogs did not judge them for what they had done. So, the dogs were helping them to find their humanness again. The results were amazing. Most of the men on the program, once they had served their time and left the prison, never returned.
In care homes and hospitals, therapy dogs and other animals are being introduced more and more often to spend time with the sick and elderly because they bring so much joy back into people’s lives. Animals remind us to be more joyful and playful, which is something we all need to be repetitively reminded of in this stressful world. Stroking an animal has also been proven to increase oxytocin – which has been called the “love hormone” – in both the person stroking the animal and the animal receiving it. It brings down stress levels and generally improves health.
This has been so widely recognized that the U.S. Ladies Olympic Gymnastics team now have a Golden Retriever who has become their therapy dog. The gymnasts said that being able to cuddle Beacon, as he is aptly named, helped them to stay calm and focused, and thereby improved their performance.
Another example I became aware of was after Hurricane Milton in Florida last year, a man who had lost his house was interviewed by a TV station as he was volunteering at a local animal shelter. The interviewer asked him why he was doing it, and he said, “Because I love it.” I felt he also found that helping the animals was enabling him to heal from the trauma of his situation.
Caregivers and Connections
I was watching a National Geographic documentary recently called “Billy and Molly, an Otter Love Story”. It is a wonderful story of a man who forms an attachment with a young otter. It is set in the remote Shetland Isles in the northern part of Scotland. A married couple move there for a better life. The film is narrated by his wife and there is this lovely scene at the beginning of the film where she is looking out of the window at the bay, contemplating how their lives had changed since “Molly” had come into them and she said, “Billy (her husband) was lost for a while until beauty found him.
Sometimes when you get everything you want you convince yourself that it is everything you need, you convince yourself you’re happy. And I think we were both guilty of that, but then, who isn’t? Billy had a wee hole in his heart.” The story traces how the couple’s lives begin to change as they take care of the otter pup who would not have survived without their help. Billy goes from feeling sad and empty to happy and fulfilled as his life is enriched by his relationship with the young otter. As he cares for her, his life begins to have a deeper, richer meaning and purpose, and the hole in his heart begins to fill with love. Billy teaches Molly to catch fish and even builds a house for her and installs the internet. He then puts an app on his phone so he can see her in the house when he is at work. It is a lovely film which really highlights how much animals bring into our lives, when we can open ourselves up to them.
I think when a person really loves an animal it opens a channel that goes deep into our humanity and makes us more how we are meant to be, more human in a way. Being with an animal can switch something on in us and allow us to be open in a way that it is often difficult to be with other humans. Animals don’t have the baggage of psychologies that we have, so we feel safe to be who we are with them. They are innocent and we don’t feel we have to protect ourselves from them in the same way, and it is a priceless gift.
Whenever I am with an animal, I acknowledge their life, so they know I see it and respect it. I try to make a soul-to-soul connection, even with a dog I might meet in a park. This, for me, is what is so special about my relationship with animals. I know they feel it when I try to make that connection. With my own cats (I had five at one time) I had a special connection with each one of them. They could feel that I loved them. Mostly when I called them, they would come running to me. And that always felt so good because I knew they trusted me.
Being able to win the trust of an animal is a big part of the work that I do but the important thing is that you need to earn their trust by being trustworthy, which of course, brings in responsibility. So, there is a whole gradient of learning in what animals can teach us in just this area. Animals mirror us, and it is no use wanting an animal to trust you if you behave badly to them or if you are not fair with them. All animals are acutely sensitive, and they know instantly if a person is a threat. They can read our moods and body language. There is no hiding the truth from an animal. Which doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, but you do need to realize that how you are, how you feel inside, is felt by them acutely, and affects them.
When I volunteered at the cat shelter and I was working with a cat, quite often several others would come up and sit next to me. They simply liked the feeling of being close to something special that was going on between me and the cat I was working with. Touching an animal teaches you so much about empathy. They are not diplomatic and if they don’t like the way you are touching them or moving around them, they walk off or let you know in a more demonstrative way. Animals live in the present and if you want to connect with them, you must be in the present too, not thinking about a future event or a past experience.
Growing Qualities Through Our Interactions with Animals
So, being with animals can teach us a whole myriad of things like being more aware, focused, in the moment or present, and sensitive. They can also teach us a lot about humility because if you want to build a trusting and positive relationship with them you must surrender to the way they need it to be.
Our interactions with animals can also teach us to have so many qualities like care, patience, understanding and kindness. The inmates in the prison program I mentioned earlier were taught these qualities by the dogs they worked with and became better human beings as a result. It is like having a child or a baby, you need to put their needs first if you possibly can. A dog needs to be walked at regular times whether you feel like it or not and they need to be fed whether you are tired or not. This is especially true when animals get older and they, like us, need more care. One of my older cats, Sammie, had hyperthyroidism and as a result would feel hungry and have to be fed every four hours, day and night. So, I would get up every four hours and feed him. I knew he couldn’t feed himself and so I did what was needed, and I did this for over a year. So, he taught me a lot about not being selfish.
I think anyone who has lived or worked with an animal will recognize how much patience is required. Allowing a dog time to sniff when he wants to requires patience and it is important that you allow them that time for their well-being. Opening the door for a cat and being patient whilst she makes up her mind to go out or not is another example of needing patience with an animal.
Animals can certainly teach us understanding. They always have a reason why they do what they do although we may not always see or know what it is. If an animal acts out of character, snaps or scratches you, perhaps they are in pain. Just like us, being in pain lowers their tolerances, and if someone is demanding of you when you are not feeling well, you might well snap at them. If a cat is not eating the food you are giving it, perhaps it is not good for them and you need to find another kind. After all, animals in the wild know exactly what food is good for them and which is not which is an instinct we have mostly lost. Try to put yourself in their paws. They have feelings and emotions; they get hurt when treated unfairly. Appreciating this can teach us to have a lot more understanding, not only with animals but with other people.
So, there are many ways an animal can teach us to be more human. From observing and recognizing the qualities they have, to the qualities and ways of being they teach us to have by being with them. The key is to be open and to look for them. Animals behave in a way that is true to how they were designed to be, which is not always so true for us when we act in ways that are less than human.
However, as humans we can learn from everything around us in the natural world—and, if we choose to, we can become better humans.
If you enjoyed this article, you may also want to view this video conversation (with transcript) between Deirdre and Lisa Marcus, on the subject of animals.
What did you think?
Please send us your comments via our contact form.
We’d like to thank our team of volunteers for generously donating all content you see on Pathways of Possibility to keep it a place of inspiration. If you’d like to support our 501(c)(3) nonprofit, you can help us with a donation that’s affordable to you. Thank you!
