In our culture, we are fascinated by people who seem to have an intuitive, intimate relationship with animals. While most people like animals and admire them, a few people seem to have a kind of inside track on how to communicate emotionally and intuitively with animals in ways that are relational and respectful. Animals immediately sense this in people, and respond in a trusting, calm, and easy manner. Even animals that otherwise have seemed stubborn, or wild, or even mean, seem to relax and bend toward humans we like to call “whisperers.”

There is Buck Brannaman, the Horse Whisperer. There is Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer (although his techniques have been critiqued in recent times). There is Axel Linden the Sheep Whisperer, a man who gave up his university lecturer position to start a…