Aysha Akhtar

American neurologist

Aysha Akhtar

Occupation(s)	Neurologist, public health specialist, co-founder and CEO of the Center for Contemporary Sciences

Aysha Akhtar is an American neurologist, public health specialist and animal ethicist.^[1]^[2] Akhtar is co-founder, CEO, and President of the Center for Contemporary Sciences.^[2] She is a US veteran.

Biography

Akhtar has a master’s degree in public health and is double board-certified in both neurology and preventive medicine.^[1] She was a Medical Officer for the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats and Commander in the U.S. Public Health Service.^[3] She was previously Deputy Director of the Army’s Traumatic Brain Injury Program.

Akhtar is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and is a consultant editor for the Journal of Animal Ethics.^[1] She is a long-term advocate of animal rights and attended animal protection events from a young age.^[4]

In 2019, Akhtar authored Our Symphony with Animals: On Health, Empathy, and Our Shared Destinies which combines medicine, social sciences and personal stories.^[5] Her book explores how empathy with animals deeply affects humans’ health and well-being. Akhtar argues that animals are co-equals, worthy of compassion and respect.^[6] She has stated that "I am on a mission to show how treating animals with kindness is not only good for animals, but also good for us."^[7]

She was a speaker at The Rethinking Animals Summit and the DC VegFest in 2019.^[8]^[9]

Personal life

Aysha Akhtar is married and lives in Maryland. She is a first generation Pakistani American and is a contemporary artist. Akhtar is a vegan.^[10]

Selected publications

Animals and Public Health: Why Treating Animals Better is Critical to Human Welfare (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)^[11]
The Need to Include Animal Protection in Public Health Policies (Journal of Public Health Policy, 2013)
The Flaws and Human Harms of Animal Experimentation (Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 2015)
Our Symphony with Animals: On Health, Empathy, and Our Shared Destinies (Pegasus Books, 2019) ISBN 978-1-64313-070-5^[12]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Cronin, Kelly. (2019). "An interview with Dr. Aysha Akhtar". compulsivereader.com. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
^ ^a ^b "Aysha Akhtar M.D., M.P.H., Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Ex Officio Board Member" Archived 2022-12-02 at the Wayback Machine. contemporarysciences.org. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
^ "Our Symphony with Animals On Health, Empathy, and Our Shared Destinies". pegasusbooks.com. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
^ Dr. Aysha Akhtar's Lifelong Commitment to Animal Advocacy. unboundproject.org. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
^ Lubbers-Payne, Mercedes. (2019). "Dr. Aysha Akhtat On Developing Her Book, Our Symphony With Animals". spinemagazine.co. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
^ Litzinger, Sam. (2020). "A physician explores why loving critters makes us better people". washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
^ Kramer, Pamela. (2019). "Our Symphony with Animals: On Health, Empathy, and Our Shared Destinies". bookreporter.com. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
^ "Summit Speakers". thinkinganimalsunited.org. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
^ "“Doctors Can and Should Care About Anyone’s Suffering:” an Interview With Main Stage Speaker Dr. Aysha Akhtar". dcvegfest.com. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
^ "“Doctors Can and Should Care About Anyone’s Suffering:” an Interview With Dr. Aysha Akhtar". animaloutlook.org. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
^ DeGrazia, David (2013). "Reviewed Work: Animals and Public Health: Why Treating Animals Better Is Critical to Human Welfare by Aysha Akhtar". Journal of Animal Ethics. 3 (1): 108–109. doi:10.5406/janimalethics.3.1.0108.
^ "Our Symphony with Animals: On Health, Empathy, and Our Shared Destinies". publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 30 May 2022.

External links

Ayshaakhtar.com

Animal rights

Topics (overviews, concepts, issues, cases)

Overviews

Concepts

Issues

Animal agriculture	Animal product Battery cage Bile bear Chick culling Concentrated animal feeding operation Fish farming Fur farming Fur trade Insect farming Intensive animal farming Intensive pig farming Livestock Poultry farming Slaughterhouse Wildlife farming Working animal Feedback (pork industry) Foam depopulation Ventilation shutdown
Animal testing	Alternatives to animal testing Animal testing on non-human primates Animal testing regulations Labcorp Drug Development Great ape research ban Green Scare Huntingdon Life Sciences Model organism Nafovanny Operation Backfire Vivisection
Animal welfare	Animal euthanasia Cruelty to animals Pain in animals Pain in amphibians Pain in cephalopods Pain in crustaceans Pain in fish Pain in invertebrates Pain and suffering in laboratory animals Welfare of farmed insects
Fishing	Commercial fishing Fishing bait Recreational fishing
Wild animals	Culling wildlife Hare coursing Hunting International primate trade Ivory trade Predation problem Seal hunting Wild animal suffering Wildlife management
Other	Abandoned pets Animal sacrifice Animal slaughter Animal trial Animals in sport Live food Live export

Cases

Methodologies

Observances

Advocates (academics, writers, activists)

Academics
and writers

Contemporary

Historical

Activists

Contemporary

Historical

Movement (groups, parties)

Groups

Contemporary

Historical

Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society
Humanitarian League (1891–1919)
Oxford Group

Parties

Animal Justice Party (Australia)
Animal Politics EU (Europe)
Animal Protection Party of Canada (Canada)
Animal Justice Party of Finland (Finland)
Animals' Party (Sweden)
Animalist Movement (Italy)
Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (Spain)
DierAnimal (Belgium)
Human Environment Animal Protection (Germany)
Italian Animalist Party (Italy)
Party for the Animals (Netherlands)
People Animals Nature (Portugal)
V-Partei³ (Germany)

Activism

Animal Rights National Conference

Media (books, films, periodicals, albums)

Books

On Abstinence from Eating Animals (3rd century)
Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
The Rights of Animals (1838)
Animals' Rights (1892)
Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology (1897)
The Universal Kinship (1906)
The New Ethics (1907)
Animals, Men and Morals (1971)
Animal Liberation (1975)
The Case for Animal Rights (1983)
Morals, Reason, and Animals (1987)
Zoos and Animal Rights (1993)
Animals, Property, and the Law (1995)
The Lives of Animals (1999)
Eternal Treblinka (2001)
Do Animals Have Rights? (2005)
Striking at the Roots (2008)
An American Trilogy (2009)
An Introduction to Animals and Political Theory (2010)
Animal Rights Without Liberation (2012)
Political Animals and Animal Politics (2014)
Animal (De)liberation (2016)
Sentientist Politics (2018)
Wild Animal Ethics (2020)
Animal Ethics in the Wild (2022)
Making a Stand for Animals (2022)

Films

The Animals Film (1981)
A Cow at My Table (1998)
Shores of Silence (2000)
The Witness (2000)
Meet Your Meat (2002)
Legally Blonde 2 (2003)
The Meatrix (2003)
Peaceable Kingdom (2004)
Earthlings (2005)
Behind the Mask (2006)
Your Mommy Kills Animals (2007)
The Cove (2009)
Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home (2009)
Forks Over Knives (2011)
Vegucated (2011)
An Apology to Elephants (2013)
Speciesism: The Movie (2013)
The Ghosts in Our Machine (2013)
Unlocking the Cage (2016)
Dominion (2018)
Seaspiracy (2021)

Periodicals

Journals	Animal Sentience Between the Species Cahiers antispécistes Etica & Animali Journal of Animal Ethics Relations. Beyond Anthropocentrism The Animals' Defender
Magazines	Arkangel Bite Back Muutoksen kevät No Compromise Satya