When Laurel Braitman’s Bernese Mountain dog jumped out her apartment window, she knew something wasn’t quite right. Her subsequent research into animals with mental illnesses exposed her to a world where mice pluck out their own whiskers, dogs are prescribed Prozac and dolphins beach themselves in mass suicides. In her new book “Animal Madness,” Braitman examines the similar ways mental illness manifests in both humans and animals, and what we can learn from these parallels.
San Francisco band Grass Widow performs for its wildest audience yet: a gang of gorillas at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. Laurel Braitman also produces a Music for Animals series, where musicians/bands perform for animals like buffaloes, donkeys, and sea lions. From Aubree Bernier-Clarke on Vimeo.