Stina's Reviews > Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals

Ah, it has been a while since I read Grandin's other books, Animals in Translation and Thinking in Pictures. In that time I have also read a lot of other animal behavior books and books on factory farming, so most of the info within this book was not new to me. For that reason, I personally found it a little dull.

Another reviewer said that an alternate title in the UK is "Making Animals Happy," and that is a far more accurate title than "Animals Make Us Human." The latter is an intriguing statement but is not explained in the book at all.

Although it starts out neatly enough, the information presented starts to get random and disorganized. While reading a chapter that is supposed to be about a certain type of animal you find yourself suddenly reading about management practices in the food-animal industry or dissemination of scientific findings. These topics are interesting enough, they just are tossed in the book kind of carelessly.

Grandin makes good points about the importance of good fieldwork and the need to learn how to satisfy animals' core ("blue ribbon") emotions. Some of the information on animal behavior is good, although I think her other books present it much better.

Once the book moved from pets (dogs, cats, horses) to animals used in the food industry, it seemed like there was a lot less information on the animals' behavior and a lot more on the workings of factory farms: their horrors, a brief history of changes that have taken place, and a bit about what Grandin has done to try and improve animal welfare there. I do appreciate her work to make factory farms less horrific for animals (cattle mostly) but if that's not what you want to read about, perhaps give this one a pass.