Temple Grandin
Share with others:
Temple Grandin
Click photo for larger image.She is an associate professor of animal science at Colorado State University, but that's not what has put Temple Grandin in the spotlight. Dr. Grandin has autism, a developmental disorder of the brain that leads to difficulties with social interaction, language problems and sometimes atypical behavior. She thinks in pictures and said her condition has given her the ability to understand better how animals process information. Dr. Grandin wrote "Animals in Translation -- Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior" (Scribner, 2004). She also has developed humane methods for slaughter and an objective approach to scoring how humanely a slaughterhouse operates. Dr. Grandin will be in Pittsburgh this month to attend a conference on autism at Duquesne University.
Q: At what point as a child did you realize you were different?
A: Well, there was no magic turning point. When I was younger, I just couldn't figure out why I didn't fit in with the other kids. I thought everybody was a visual thinker like me. I think in pictures. Gradually, in talking to many people, I started to learn how my thinking was different. There's no single revelation. The thing about being a person with autism you just keep learning more and more and more.
Q: There are much more severe levels of autism.
A: Yes, about half of the people on the autism spectrum will remain nonverbal or very limited verbal for the rest of their life. Then you've got the Asperger's Syndrome, which is the milder variant, where there is no obvious speech delay. Many of these people are very socially awkward, but they are brilliant. Einstein today would be labeled autistic. He had no speech until he was 3. Mozart was probably Asperger's Syndrome. Often times you will look in the family history and see intellectual giftedness. So a little bit of the trait can give some advantages and too much of the trait and you have a very severe case of autism.
Q: You have explained that you don't grasp concepts, but that you think in concrete terms. If you cannot picture it, you can't grasp it?
A: Yes, when you were asking me about autism, I was seeing specific individuals. What words do for me is narrate the pictures in my mind.
Q: So, the concept of a soul does not mean anything to you?
A: No, unfortunately I saw a fillet of sole first off, and then I saw a soul singer. You see no picture, no thought. I have to have a concrete realistic picture in order to think. When I think about things like synergy and God, I look up at the cosmos. In the really smart end of the spectrum [of autism], there seems to be three types of specialized minds. The visual thinker like me, we tend to be bad at things like algebra. Then there's the music and math mind. That person thinks in patterns. Then there is the word specialist type that will know all the baseball statistics, and they memorize subway schedules and things like that. They might be really good at journalism. I have known some journalists that I know are Asperger's.
Q: You must have gone to a lot of slaughterhouses while developing your humane system for dispatching of cattle and other animals.
A: Oh, I have been to a lot of slaughterhouses. And the plants were bad, they were bad. As a result of the audits done by places like McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and Whole Foods, there have been some real, real improvements.
Q: Are you a vegetarian?
A: No, I'm not a vegetarian. I feel that we can eat meat ethically, but we've got to give animals a decent life. Of our farm animals, beef -- when they are raised right -- have the best life. There are some problems with some of the intensely raised animals like pigs. There are things that still need to be corrected. When I first got involved with laying hens, they were jammed in the cases so tight they were all on top of each other. They couldn't even lay down at night. It was really terrible.
Q: How do you keep people who work in slaughterhouses humane?
A: Management. Management has to control the hate. One of the interesting things I have seen in the plan is the greatly reduced use of the electric prods -- the whole attitude of the employees got better. Since they aren't allowed to carry a weapon [electric prod] around it's sort of like "OK, Come on boy. Walk up the chute," instead of zap, zap, zap.
You also have to make sure you don't overload employees. Another thing I found is that certain people should not be working with animals. They have to be removed. Some people turn mean, others don't.
Q: Why do they stun animals? Why not just kill them?
A: Actually, the stun gun does kill them. What it does is it drives a steel bolt into their head, which has the same effect that a .45-[caliber] would have. It irreversibly starts the process of death if it is done right. If it is done right, it is instantaneous and they don't feel a thing. When we started work on improving the plants, what we found was one of the biggest problems was with the stunners and the maintenance.
Q: You talk about animal genius. What is it?
A: Well, things like migratory skills in birds. It's very similar to a "Rain Man"-type of savant. [Based on the 1988 movie "Rain Man" starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.] The bird only has to be shown the route once by another bird -- then he knows the way. He remembers pictures, smells, sounds and constellation patterns.
Q: When did you discover your unique understanding of animal thought and behavior?
A: Well, it was more a gradual learning. You know, there is all this debate going on about whether or not animals think. But it seemed obvious to me that they think. It's sensory-based thinking. The animal puts this information into categories. They also have feelings. It is very clear now that animals feel pain and emotion. They have the same neurotransmitters that we have. The psychiatric drugs like stimulants and Prozac work on animals.
Q: What is the current state of the union between man and animal?
A: I think it's gradually improving. Definitely.
First Published August 21, 2006 12:00 am
