The latest scientific research as well as her own personal observations are used by Temple Grandin, an animal science professor, in a journey into the animal world. She believes that animals and humans have much more in common that previously believed, including emotions. In her previous book, Animals in Transition, she drew on her own experience with autism and her career as an animal scientist to share insights into how animals think, act and feel.
Animals Make Us Human Overview
Enrichment of an animal's life by creating an environment that engages its positive emotions and subdues its negative emotions is the focus of Animals Make Us Human. Animal welfare is the heart of Grandin's book and that includes how to make them happy. Continuing on from her previous research, she identifies the core emotional needs of animals and how to fulfill them for dogs and cats, horses, farm animals and zoo animals. She challenges the usual assumptions about animal contentment while honoring the bond with man's fellow creatures.
A Good Life for Animals
Animals Make Us Human asks "what does an animal need to have a good life?" Grandin explains:
"I don't mean a good life physically. We know a lot about what kind of food, water, exercises and veterinary care animals need to grow well and be healthy. I mean a good mental life."
She uses the findings of Brambell Report, "Intensive animal production" to list the five freedoms that animals should have:
- Freedom from hunger and thirst
- Freedom from discomfort
- Freedom from pain, injury, or disease
- Freedom to express normal behavior
- Freedom from fear and distress
Interaction Between Humans and Animals
Animals Make Us Human considers how humans and animals can best interact with each other. Gradin's premise, using her own autism experience, is that an animal is a conscious being that has feelings-a core emotional system that both animals and humans share. These include:
- A need to seek
- A sense of rage, fear and panic
- Feelings of lust
- An urge to nurture
- The ability to play
Gradin uses her latest scientific research and observations to explain the idiosyncrasies of animal behavior and insists that animals and human have more in common than previously believed.
Animals Make Us Human Discussions
Some of Gardin's opinions are sometimes at odds with conventional wisdom such as that dogs need human parents, not alpha pack leaders, and cats respond to training.
Grandin and Johnson discuss topics such as why horses are skittish, why pigs are arguably the most intelligent of beasts second only to raccoons. The chapters on cows and chickens are mostly focused on animal welfare, particularly in the way they are usually raised and slaughtered. The authors provide concrete suggestions about improving the lives of animals entrusted to them. Grandin believes that it is entirely ethical for humans to use animals commercially, as long as they are treated with compassion and respect.
About the Authors
Temple Grandin obtained her Ph.D. in animal science at the University of Illinois and became an associate professor at Colorado State University. She is the author of four previous books, including bestselling Thinking in Pictures and Animals in Transition. She spearheaded reform of the quality of life and humanness of death for the world's farm animals. Her company, Grandin Livestock Systems, works with the country's fast-food purveyors to monitor the conditions of animal facilities worldwide. She lectures on both animal science and autism.
Catherine Johnson is a Ph.D and writer specializing in neuropsychiatry and the brain. She coauthored Animals in Transition and served as a trustee of the National Alliance for Autism for seven years.
Gradin, Temple and Catherine Johnson. Animals Make Us Human. NY, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.
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