The Soul of All Living Creatures: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human Paperback – July 8, 2014 Author: Visit Amazon's Vint Virga D.V.M. Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0307718875 | Format: PDF, EPUB
The Soul of All Living Creatures: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human – July 8, 2014 Download for free books The Soul of All Living Creatures: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human Paperback – July 8, 2014 from 4shared, mediafire, hotfile, and mirror link
Amazon.com Review
Images from Author Dr. Vint Virga's Work
Despite their species differences, this African wild dog reminds me of so many domestic dogs I've known in his nuanced behaviors—the way he perks one ear, his calm studied gaze, how he bounds into holding when his keeper calls ahead of the other three males in the pack. Photo (c) Meg Bradbury Stowe
Click here for a larger image
Early each morning before the zoo opens, this red panda can be found scaling the stairs and tiers of his climbing structure foraging for his favorite food—bamboo stalks which his keepers have hung within the trees of his habitat. Photo (c) Meg Bradbury Stowe
Click here for a larger image
Befitting his ancestry, when outside in his habitat, this young male snow leopard blends within the boulders almost to a shadow, mindfully watching the zoo visitors below while I study him from my perch near the rock wall. Photo (c) Vint Virga, DVM
Click here for a larger image
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
Early in his career as a veterinarian, Virga witnessed how his quiet presence and contact with a dog that seemed to be failing after being hit by a car likely saved the dog’s life. The incident led him to ponder over 30 years as a specialist in behavioral medicine the connections between humans and animals. Beyond diagnostic tests and medical treatments, Virga recounts cases of animals, from cats and dogs to wolves and whales, adapting to illness, change, and impending death in ways that inform and are informed by relationships with humans. He notes cave drawings illustrating the connections, not just as predator and prey, between humans and animals as evidence of our fascination with animals. Indeed, our early connection with wolves led to the evolution of a domestic companion. In separate chapters, using case histories and research, he focuses on sensitivity, expressivity, forgiveness, integrity, adaptability, mindfulness, and other basic traits animals and humans share and how we can better understand animal behavior. Animal lovers will appreciate this tribute to the connection between humans and animals. --Vanessa Bush
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
Direct download links available for The Soul of All Living Creatures: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human Paperback – July 8, 2014
- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Broadway Books (July 8, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0307718875
- ISBN-13: 978-0307718877
- Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8 in Books > Medical Books > Veterinary Medicine
- #51 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Animals
- #51 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Fauna
A specialist in (animal) behavioral medicine, the author intertwines observations of some of his patients with his thoughts on mindfulness and traits humans and animals share. Each chapter addresses one of the characteristics, ranging from sensitivity to forgiveness. The author posits that humans can learn how to embody those qualities by listening and studying the animals around them.
Although this book covers a lot of ground, the author's philosophical musings failed to move. I was hoping for the level of emotion the author evoked in the introduction, with the story of Pongo, a young dog struck by a car. The animal literally seemed to revive and recover due to the power of love. It spoke volumes about the author, a vet willing to give more than medical treatment and to a dog, whose spirit was drawn by the warmth of human contact. I was touched by the sadness of the depressed and stressed leopards but most of the stories were mundane and not especially memorable. Still there are hints of brilliance when the author grapples with shocking violence of predation and the brutality of slaughterhouses and animal experimentation. But it sinks into bittersweet melancholy.
I am not sure I agree with his zen observations and it is really time to retire some of the old stories , ie 3 blind men and the elephant, the last strawberry before you die, etc. At one point the author suggests that due to the many different breeds of dog, animals are no longer able to communicate as a pack. An evening watching Cesar Milan would certainly dispute that. Some of his conclusions are contradictory and confusing. At one point he states that dogs do not feel guilty but respond expressively to their owners cues.
Amazingly enough, this book did not make me cry. I expected heartbreaking stories, which I don't enjoy but which seem to come with the territory when reading about animals. There were stories, and there were some which are sad, some which really made me feel for the animals involved, but not break into ugly sobs.
Subtitled "What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human," this book does that but it also teaches us more about animals, how close they are in emotions to humans, how they react to different situations, how their lives are more complex than the casual observer would ever guess.
One of the passages I could most relate to:
"When I watch others eat, I find it curious how absently most people cut at their steak, tear off a chicken wing, or gnaw at a bone, without a thought about their prey, the abattoir, the life that passed. I don't believe it's done with intention. It's just that meat is removed from its source - a fragment of another being."
Don't let me lead you into thinking this is a book about vegetarianism. It is not. But there are so many observations that I felt when I became a vegetarian that I could really connect to the book and the author.
The author is a consultant to zoos, and this leads to a quandary. Do we really have the right to keeps animals in cages, no matter how glorified, in order to protect the species as a whole? The author seems to think so. I'm not so convinced. One of the saddest stories in the book, the one that almost made me cry, was about a snow leopard so out of her element that her spirit had left her body. No one, animal or human, should have to live like that. And then there was the lonely whale.
The allegories in the book were not as appealing to me.
The Soul of All Living Creatures: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human – July 8, 2014 Download
Please Wait...