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

4.5 stars.

Temple Grandin is autistic and has a Ph.D. in animal science. She works to made conditions for animals better – on ranches and farms, in slaughterhouses and plants, in zoos, etc. In this book, she has an introductory chapter talking about animal emotions, then individual chapters on different animals: dogs, cats, cows, horses, pigs, chickens, and, more generally, wildlife and zoos. She explains how to make animals lives better. With all her experience and training, she can give lots of good examples to explain what she means.

I think Temple Grandin has an amazing insight into animals and their behaviour because of her autism (and she talked a lot about the link between animals and autistic people in “Animals in Translation”). She is a good middle of the road voice for animals – she’s not an extreme activist, but she is working hard to make sure animals are treated well and don’t suffer. Even the animals I am not all that familiar with, I found very interesting to read about in this book. The way she describes things is very matter-of-fact, and it is horrifying the way some animals are treated, but there was only one time I was almost in tears, in the chicken chapter. Even she was horrified, despite all she’s seen, with the conditions in the chicken plant she described.

If you are at all interested in animals and/or animal behaviour (and/or work with animals in any way), I highly recommend this book.