Grandin, Temple - Animals in Translation

Temple Grandin is autistic, and she has revolutionized the way that farm animals are cared for. Half of the animal movement systems in the U.S. and Canada, from slaughterhouses to dairies, have implemented techniques she has developed.

Her second book, Animals in Translation, is a fascinating look at how animals and autistic people think. It took years for Grandin to realize she thought differently than most people, that her brain worked in pictures, not words, and it took a few more years for her to discover animal minds work in much the same way. The book is a window into a thought process that is alien to most of us, and it is written simply, with plentiful anecdotes and humorous illustration.

It’s a difficult undertaking to be sure, but the bridge between the Grandin and common people like you or I is likely Grandin’s co-writer, Catherine Johnson. Johnson has two boys who are autistic, and that experience allowed her to connect Grandin’s thought process and concepts with non-autistic thinkers.

The voice, though, is all Grandin’s, and her brilliant mind and sense of humor shine through. Autistic people are sometimes considered child-like and innocent, Grandin writes, and the joy she takes in her work and in animals is a testament to that joy. The reader can almost hear her giggle as she relays stories of the sexual perversity of pigs and the rough tongues of cows curiously licking her.

The book falls short at times, though. Grandin is no doubt sincerely intelligent, but the strength of the book is in explaining the concept of thinking visually, and there are times when Grandin strays from her point.

An example of her strengths comes as she describes a friend’s dog that would root through his garbage. Her friend figured that the dog was feeling shame because when its owner returned home and garbage was strewn across the room, the dog would cower in a corner. As an experiment, the dog’s owner took the dog out of the room and put garbage on the floor himself. When the dog returned to the room, it cowered in a corner again. For the dog, the image of garbage on the floor when his master was present was bad, but the concept of rooting through the garbage in the first place was neutral.

But much of the book also focuses on animal behavior, and the lines blur a bit at that point. Since most of Grandin’s experience is with livestock, some of her canine analysis comes off as conjecture (in Grandin’s defense, she always informs the reader that she is assuming). In one case, for instance, she disagrees with the renown Monks of New Skete, who have been training dogs for generations, and it is hard to see how she is more qualified than they are to explain dog behavior. Many of the stories she relays of determining dog behavior are from case studies of dogs that are poorly behaved.

I am biased, though. Grandin is particularly critical of Staffordshire Terriers (pit bulls) and Rottweilers. Since I own an AmStaff (okay…pit bull), I am apt to unfairly defensive over some of the things she writes about those breeds, but she definitely provides valid insight.

All in all, Animals in Translation is a stunning explanation of the minds of both animals and autistic people. More and more children are being diagnosed with autism, and many folks within the medical community believe that autism has always been present, but that doctors are becoming better at recognizing its symptoms.

The impact of autism also provokes thought within a faith context, and it would’ve been interesting to hear Grandin’s take on belief in a higher, unseen power or how people with autistic traits would view God. Since the spectrum of autism is wide, ranging from autistic savants (think the Tom Cruise/Dustin Hoffman film Rain Man) to people with mild autistic symptoms, the impact of undiagnosed autism on politics and religion could be a book in and of itself.

For other great reading on the topic of autism, check out Mark Haddon’s brilliant novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Nick Hornby, author of About a Boy and High Fidelity, has a son who is autistic. He edited an excellent collection of short stories from some of today’s top writers entitled Speaking with Angels. All of the proceeds from that book go toward research for autism.

For more information on autism, click here, and for more information on Temple Grandin, visit grandin.com.

Posted on April 15, 2006 12:00 AM