When I think about the importance of love, my mind turns to a most unlikely doctor – a gentle healer who moves quietly through the palliative care hospital in Calais, France. Staff simply call him “Doctor Peyo.”

Peyo is no ordinary therapist.
He steps softly on four hooves.

Once a champion show horse, Peyo now devotes his life to comforting the terminally ill. He has an extraordinary intuition for suffering, often sensing illness such as cancers and tumours long before medical staff mention it. When he chooses a patient to visit, he stays for hours—sometimes until their final breath—standing guard with a calm, unwavering presence. For many in their last days, he is not just a visitor, but a companion, a reminder that they are seen, worthy and not alone.

His trainer, Hassen Bouchakour, reflects: “In the past, people died at home. Now many pass away in sterile hospital rooms, often alone. We’ve lost the softness, the dignity. Peyo brings that back.”

For more than a thousand patients, he has brought exactly that: softness, dignity and a sense of peace that transcends words.

Hope and Healing

There is a reason animals are used to improve the well-being of those with special needs, the elderly and the sick.  It is well-accepted that the unique, silent but very special connection animals afford, is a powerful force in helping to heal physical and mental health. However, it’s a connection that doesn’t just materialise when in need.  Any of us with a companion animal would recognise the tremendous role they play in our well-being – how they steady us in an increasingly stressful and complex world.

Animals have so much to give. And they deserve lives that honour that gift.

Yet behind closed doors, factory farming keeps a very different story hidden. Animals – sentient beings like Peyo – are caged, crowded or confined in vast sheds, their suffering invisible to the consumers who unwittingly fund it through products devoid of honest labelling. So many endure lives devoid of stimulation, dignity or the chance to express even their most basic natural behaviours.

The light animals give us

The story of Doctor Peyo gives me hope because it captures something profound: animals are a true gift. His story has spread across the world, touching millions, because it reminds us that animals are not voiceless at all. Their actions speak with extraordinary clarity – of compassion, courage and connection.

They inspire us. They transform us. And they make us more human.

Stand up for Animals

On this St Valentine’s Day and every day, let us strive to never fail our fellow species. Let’s find that inner strength to do what’s right.  And the courage to stand up and be their voice. 

Let us encourage others to look beyond packaging and see the sentient life behind every piece of meat, dairy or egg. To consider the wild animals whose spirits are broken so they can be ridden, forced to perform or made to entertain. To recognise the many ways we harm animals simply because it is hidden or convenient.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

We have the power to choose compassion. To treat animals with the same respect and tenderness that Peyo offers his human patients.

In a world that is often fearful of life challenges, sickness and death, Peyo has demonstrated something rare: the courage to face it all with gentleness, dignity and if we are lucky, the soft muzzle of an animal friend by your side.

Main Image Credit: Jérémy Lempin