Interview with Deena Metzger, co-editor of Intimate Nature –– The Bond Between Women and Animals

The book Intimate Nature – The Bond Between Women and Animals was inspired by the relationship that I have had with animals -- I have lived with wolves for seventeen years – and the bond I have felt with women who honor animals as intelligent and sensitive beings. Indigenous peoples have always recognized animals, but most of us no longer remember who animals are anymore. Women have unique relationships with animals because we value the knowledge that comes from intimacy as much as the knowledge that comes from scientific observation. I wanted to be able to document these relationships and their profundity, so that they would be visible to the world.

Animals carry different and varied intelligences. It is possible to have relationships with anima ls in which we understand and learn about and from each other. The great tragedy is that animals and other species are becoming extinct at a horrendous rate because of diminishing habitats, hunting, poaching, human use, enslavement, and environmental degeneration. Their fate and the fate of the earth are intimately tied. We may not only lose them but ourselves; we may lose the whole world.

Intimate Nature reaches out through essays, interviews, stories and poetry. Some can be read to or told to children who are not yet ready to read themselves. The stories recapitulate real events; they are stories that move and inspire anyone who is ready to read. The stories open a world that has been closed for a long time in our culture but is a world that children remember. These stories tell of the many faces of animals, and the possibility of living in friendship with them. In "The Chimpanzee at Stanford" – a short, non-fiction story by Fran Peavey – a chimpanzee recognizes the humans who will be her allies. In "I Acknowledge Mine," Jane Goodall describes visiting a research laboratory where experiments on chimpanzees are being conducted. One chimpanzee recognizes that she is crying for him. This confirms his intelligence, ethical awareness and spiritual development.

Through this book, I want to support your instinctive love and camaraderie with animals. I want you to hold on to this basic knowledge as yours without thinking you must outgrow it. There are a thousand ways to support animals from political activity on behalf of endangered whales, elephants and wolves, to fighting against cruelty to animals, to stopping pesticides which destroy the environment. We can help work with any number of nature preserves for endangered, abandoned or abused animals. And we can be sure there is enough food and homes for all animals by feeding the birds, or rescuing animals from shelters. Let us not injure animals for our entertainment. We can discern which circuses or zoos are inhumane and cruel, and insist that the animals be well treated and are happy and content in the places they are required to work.

We can each find our own way to honor those animals that are important to us or come to us. And we can find ways – imaginatively and actively -- to enter into dialogue with them. Regard your friendship and relationship with animals as complex and important an activity as it is with human beings.