Temple Grandin

I just attended Temple Grandin’s presentation about animal behavior. She is a professor at the University of Colorado and is a bestselling author and has designed slaughter houses to make sure animals are calm before they are killed. Tonight, she began by explaining the connection between animals and people with autism. Animals are visually oriented, have associative memories, and are unable to express their emotions through language. Temple shared some of her own experience dealing with autism, and said that this allowed her to notice details of slaughter houses that frightened animals, but would normally be overlooked. She said simple things like chains hanging down, horizontal shadows, sudden movements, reflective things, unfamiliar objects, and loud noises could scare an animal. Temple said that some of the most import ways to see if animals are scared before they are slaughtered is to document the number of animals that bellow, back up in the gate, slip on the floor, or need to be prodded with an electric tazer. If a slaughter house exceeds the number of any of these incidents, then they need to change their system. After her presentation, the audience was allowed to ask questions and one person mentioned the Polyface Farm that we read about in The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Temple said that his method of slaughter was great, but that it just not a practical way to produce meat on a large scale. Temple thinks that the stun gun is the best way to slaughter an animal because it is quick, and she had seen some horrible religious slaughtering with knives that were not effective. She also shared her opinion on being vegan. She thinks that it is unnatural because the majority of vegans have to take supplements in order to be healthy, but one vegan in the audience disagreed with her and said that she and her whole family were vegans and she was not nutrient deficient. When asked about comparing slaughter houses to the Holocaust, Temple said that killing humans was a line she refused to cross. She had been asked if she could fix the electric chair during the 90’s, Temple said she could but she would not. Finally, she said that she is a reformer in the industrial food system, not someone who is trying to get rid of it. I enjoyed her presentation because she was friendly, matter of fact, and did not sugar coat anything that she had seen. I was surprised that someone who designs slaughter houses cares so much for their welfare, so even though I do no eat meat, I respect her for trying to change a flawed system.