The Human-Animal: The Animal That, Therefore, We Are

This book opens a series that confronts a truth we’ve worked hard to ignore: humanity is animality. We’ve turned our backs on our nature, constructing artificial worlds where we never quite belong. Social media has only deepened the illusion, giving us endless noise and distraction while the unease beneath still gnaws. We pile up possessions, comforts, and digital escapes, trying to quiet instincts that will not be silenced.

Animal training makes the contradiction plain. The author examines trainers as the animal species we are: convinced we can read another species’ mind, yet essentially blind to the instincts and drives that shape our own. It is this misplaced certainty, pretending to know everything about others while knowing so little about ourselves, that the book lays bare.

Drawn from years of teaching animal trainers, it offers a provocative ethological and anthrozoological look at humans as instinct-bound beings adrift in a world we’ve reshaped beyond recognition. Complete with a free resource list, references, and recommended reading, it challenges anyone who works with animals, from pet owners to professionals, to see both species in a new light.