How Do We Forgive Those Who Harm Animals? An Animal Reiki Perspective
Students have asked me this question many times over the years: How can I possibly forgive someone who harms animals?
When we love animals deeply and witness cruelty, neglect, exploitation or suffering caused by humans, anger can feel not only natural, but justified. Anger can alert us that something is wrong. It can awaken us to injustice and even motivate us to act. But what do we do with it then?
This is where our Animal Reiki practice can offer another way forward. Compassion can help us find a path through anger and, eventually, toward forgiveness.
What the Reiki Precept “Do Not Anger” Can Teach Us
Perhaps the first place our Reiki teachings point us is toward the precept, Do not anger.
In the Let Animals Lead® method, we don't use this precept to tell ourselves that anger is “bad” because, of course, it is natural for humans to become angry. The important question is: What do we do with that anger once it arises?
Sometimes we act rashly and create more harm. Sometimes we feed our anger by continually replaying what happened in our minds. Other times we push it down and try to ignore it, only to find (sometimes years later) that bitterness, resentment and helplessness still remain.
But if we can learn to notice anger when it arises, that moment of awareness gives us something very powerful: a choice about what we do next.
This is an important part of the inner work we practice through the Reiki Precepts, Six Pillars and Animal Reiki Code of Ethics. We work on ourselves first so that we can hold a clearer, stronger and more compassionate space for animals.
What Does It Really Mean to Forgive?
For many animal lovers, the word forgiveness itself can be challenging. Does forgiving someone mean that what they did to an animal was okay?
Absolutely not.
Forgiveness does not require us to condone cruelty, forget what happened, reconcile with someone, stop protecting animals or remain silent about injustice. The American Psychological Association's definition of forgiveness makes an important distinction: forgiveness is not the same thing as excusing what happened or reconciling with the person who caused harm. Instead, it involves a voluntary shift so that resentment no longer dominates our feelings and behavior.
And perhaps this is where our Reiki practice can help us understand forgiveness in a gentler way.
We don't have to force ourselves to forgive. But we can choose not to keep feeding the anger.
We can notice when our thoughts are replaying the injustice again and again. We can then choose to return to the present moment. In doing so, it's easier to reconnect with compassion. We can choose to put our energy toward helping the animals rather than continually focusing on the person or system that harmed them.
Little by little, as anger loosens its hold, we may find that there is more room inside us for peace—and eventually, perhaps, for forgiveness.
Research on forgiveness therapy has found reductions in anger and hostility, stress and distress, along with increases in positive emotions. Although these studies focus on hurts between humans, they offer an interesting parallel to what our Animal Reiki practice teaches us: releasing resentment can support our own emotional well-being.
Forgiveness, then, is not something we do for the person who caused harm. It can be something that frees us from carrying their actions with us everywhere we go.
And for those of us who work with animals, this matters because the less burdened we are by anger and resentment, the more fully we can offer animals our peaceful and compassionate presence.
Can Animals Sense Our Emotions?
This is a related question I often get asked: Can animals sense our emotions?
Anyone who has shared their life with animals has probably experienced this many times. Science is also beginning to explore just how sensitive animals can be to emotional information from humans.
For example, a 2024 study published in Scientific Reports found that dogs responded differently after exposure to the odor of human stress—even without visual or auditory information from the stressed person. The researchers found changes in the dogs' responses during a cognitive-bias test, suggesting that human stress cues may affect how dogs perceive situations around them.
Knowing how sensitive animals are reinforces something very important in our Animal Reiki practice:
The inner state we bring into an animal's space matters.
When we continue to hold intense anger toward the people who harmed an animal, that anger can become part of how we show up when we are trying to support them.
The animal doesn't know the story running through our mind: I'm angry because I love you. I'm angry at the person who did this to you.
They simply experience the anger we are bringing into the space.
This is why the Let Animals Lead® method asks us to create the healing space within ourselves first. Rather than directing energy toward an animal or trying to fix what is wrong, we practice becoming the peace we hope to offer. Forgiveness is an important part of creating that peaceful space.
Want to experience this space for yourself? Try the Healing Space Meditation, one of the foundational meditation practices I teach in the Let Animals Lead® method.
When We Are Angry About an Animal's Past
One of the most common times we may struggle with forgiveness is when we have rescued an animal from an abusive or neglectful past.
As we get to know the animal and learn what they have endured, we can naturally feel tremendous anger toward the humans who failed them. We may find ourselves repeatedly imagining what happened before they found us. I sometimes describe this as us unwittingly “breathing new life into old ashes.”
But our Animal Reiki practice gives us a positive choice in these moments: the choice of mindfulness. By noticing when we start dwelling on the past, we can make a conscious choice to bring ourselves back to this present moment. This helps us focus on things like feeling grateful that our animal is here now, that they are safe or that we found each other.
Our energy naturally begins to soften as we relax into this present moment of love and companionship.
This connects beautifully with the practice I wrote about last month in Seeing with “Reiki Eyes”. An animal's difficult past may be part of their story, but it does not have to become the only thing we see when we look at them.
Watch this YouTube video where I speak more about seeing with Reiki eyes, with the help of an adorable dog named Lily.
Another way to move toward forgiveness is to find compassionate ways to actively help animals who've been abused or neglected. Volunteering in your local shelter or sanctuary, for example, is a wonderful way to transform feelings of helplessness into something positive.
You can change a rescued animal's life by becoming the person showing them that humans can be safe, kind and full of love.
When Social Media Keeps Showing Us Animal Suffering
As animal lovers in the online world, we may also find social media algorithms sending us shocking videos about animals being harmed.
This isn't necessarily because we went looking for upsetting content. Social platforms use many signals—including what we watch and interact with, and how long we spend viewing content—to predict what will hold our attention and what we may want to see next.
So those of us who care deeply about animals may find our feeds filled not only with beautiful animal stories, but also painful images of suffering and cruelty that naturally stir anger, grief and helplessness.
Watching one disturbing video after another can leave our nervous systems activated and our emotions moving through a roller coaster of anger, worry and despair. Continuing to watch can also keep bringing our attention back to the very anger we are trying to release.
Our Animal Reiki practice gives us a more positive choice. We can stop scrolling. We can breathe. And if we choose to, we can also take a moment to dedicate an Animal Reiki meditation practice to the animals who are suffering.
It's so powerful to choose instead, right in that moment where we might otherwise feel helpless or angry, to offer a healing space of All is Well, I See You and You Are Loved.
What a powerful vibration to radiate into the world: that no animal is forgotten or unseen.
Then, rather than allowing the video to leave us feeling powerless for the rest of the day, we can ask whether there is another compassionate action we want to take. Perhaps we support an organization working on the issue, volunteer, educate ourselves, sign a petition or find another meaningful way to help.
This is something I've explored before in Finding Your Voice for Animals Using Animal Reiki: our practice doesn't ask us to become passive in the face of suffering. It just helps us become more mindful of the energy from which we act.
This is what forgiveness does also: it doesn't ask us to stop opposing harm. It asks us to consider the energy we use, cultivate and strengthen as we oppose it.
Forgiving When the Harm Is Still Happening
Forgiveness may be especially difficult when the harm isn't only something that happened in the past. Factory farming, animal experimentation and many other forms of animal suffering are ongoing. In situations like these, forgiveness may be something we must return to again and again.
Sometimes taking compassionate action—signing petitions, writing letters, joining peaceful local actions, sitting vigil, changing our own consumer choices or supporting organizations doing frontline work—can help transform helplessness into purpose.
We can also practice humility by remembering that people live in cultures and economic systems that may have taught them to see animals very differently than we do. Compassion for another human being does not mean we agree with their actions. It simply means we refuse to let anger become the energy we bring with us as we try to create a kinder world.
Over the years, several of my students have struggled with seeing crowded trucks filled with animals heading toward slaughterhouses because of where they live. They may be forced to drive beside these trucks several times a week.
Seeing the animals inside can stretch their empathy to the breaking point and affect them negatively for the rest of the day.
They often ask me: “How do I let go of my anger at this?”
One of my answers is to think about what they can offer instead to the animals in that moment.
As an Animal Reiki practitioner, we might set an intention each morning:
May I be a source of love, light and peace to all animals crossing my path today.
Then, when we find ourselves sitting beside that truck at an intersection, perhaps we can see this heartbreaking moment differently. We happen to be there. The animals happen to be there. And for that brief moment, we have the opportunity to hold them within a compassionate space.
Instead of allowing our minds to become consumed by anger toward the humans or the system that put them there, we can turn toward the animals with:
I see you.
You are loved.
I bless you.
Perhaps this is one of the few moments in their lives (or perhaps the only one!) when a human looks toward them with love rather than seeing them as a product. We do not have to control the outcome of the situation. We can simply bring love and compassion to an otherwise hopeless moment.
And is there anything more powerful than shining light in the darkness?
Afterward, if there is meaningful action to take, we'll be taking it from a much more grounded, peaceful place.
A Let Animals Lead® Practice for Moving From Anger Toward Forgiveness
The next time anger arises because of something you witness happening to an animal, try moving through these steps:
Notice the anger with compassion. Instead of judging yourself for feeling angry or immediately reacting from it, simply acknowledge: I am angry right now. Mindfulness gives you a little space around the emotion.
Return to yourself first. Come back to your breath and your center. Remember the Reiki precept, Do not anger. You don't have to make the feeling disappear. Simply allow yourself to become grounded enough that anger is no longer guiding your response.
Stop feeding the anger and make space for forgiveness. Notice if your mind is replaying what happened, imagining the perpetrator or adding more fuel to your anger. You don't have to try to force those feelings away. Simply choose not to strengthen them. Return again to your breath, the present moment and compassion. Forgiveness may not arise immediately, and that is okay. We can create the inner conditions that allow it to unfold in its own time.
Turn your attention toward the animal with Reiki eyes. Rather than focusing only on what a human has done wrong, see the animal in their wholeness. Remember their dignity, agency and the beautiful light of their essence. Let your heart say, I see you.
Offer peace without trying to control the outcome. Create the healing space within yourself. Let go of needing to fix the entire situation in this moment. Trust the healing peace of Reiki to guide this moment and invite the animal to connect only if they wish.
Let compassion guide your next action. Once you are grounded, ask: Is there something helpful I can do? Sometimes the answer will be advocacy or direct action. Sometimes it will be volunteering, donating or educating. Sometimes the only thing available in that particular moment is your peaceful presence. Do what you can, then practice releasing the outcome.
Forgiveness isn't necessarily a space where anger never returns. Especially when we continue witnessing animal suffering, it may be a practice we must return to again and again.
Perhaps this is why the words For today only are also so important within the Reiki Precepts.
We only have to focus on this day and this moment.
What Animals Can Teach Us About Forgiveness
There is one more place I often look when thinking about forgiveness: the animals themselves.
Over my many years of working in shelters and sanctuaries, I've met animals who have experienced terrible things at human hands—and yet so many of them, when given enough time, safety, agency and respect, eventually choose to open their hearts to humans again.
I am continually humbled by animals who don't let a past human's cruelty define every human they will ever meet.
Forgiveness doesn't require us to erase the past. It asks us not to let the past completely determine the energy we bring into the present. And we can choose what we carry into the next moment, and the next, and the next. Moment by moment.
We can choose whether anger hardens our hearts or awakens us into compassionate action. We can choose to release what weighs us down so that we have more energy to serve the animals we love. And perhaps, as we practice letting go of the anger we no longer need to carry, forgiveness can begin to find its own way into our hearts.
I invite you to join us in focusing on this affirmation in your practice this month:
I choose peace and embrace forgiveness, for myself and others.
For forgiveness is one more way Animal Reiki helps us create the conditions for healing—not only for the animals we love, but within ourselves and, little by little, into the world we share.
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