Animals in Translation

Animals in Translation

Author	Temple Grandin Catherine Johnson
Subject	Ethology, autism
Genre	Non-fiction
Publication date	2005
Pages	356 pp.
ISBN

Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior is a 2005 book by Temple Grandin and co-written by Catherine Johnson. Animals in Translation explores the similarity between animals and people with autism, a concept that was originally touched upon in Grandin's 1995 book Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism.

Temple Grandin is a specialist in animal behavior, and despite having autism, has received a Ph.D from the University of Illinois, and is a professor at Colorado State University. Grandin works as a consultant to the American beef industry, designing slaughterhouse equipment that has been extensively adopted within the United States agricultural industry, even being employed by McDonald's. An estimated 90% of all cattle slaughtered in the United States and Canada are done so according to standards and equipment designed by Grandin.Oliver Sacks's 1995 book An Anthropologist on Mars included Grandin as part of a neurological study. This book first brought Grandin to the public's attention, with her self description of her experiences being like an "anthropologist on Mars" being used as the title.

Now I'm writing this book because I wish animals could have more than just a low-stress life and a quick, painless death. I wish animals could have a good life, too, with something useful to do. I think we owe them that.

In Grandin's second book Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism, (released in 1995), she explained how her brain receives input as a typical person's brain does, but rather than converting it into words it remains visual.Animals in Translation expands on this concept, suggesting that her autism allows her to focus on visual details more intensely, which allows her to "take in the world as animals do". Grandin suggests that people with autism are similar to animals, as they "see, feel and think in remarkably similar ways". Based on this idea, Grandin goes on to explain that all animals are more intelligent and more sensitive than humans assume them to be, and should be given a "good life...with something useful to do".