Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals

Understanding animals and "Creating the Best Life for Animals" is the focus of Temple Grandin's new book. As it turns out, we have more in common emotionally with our animal friends than we knew. "All animals and people have the same core emotion systems in the brain." The Core Emotions are: 1. Seeking, 2. Rage, 3.Fear, and 4. Panic; plus three sophisticated, special-purpose ones: 5. Lust (sex drive) 6. Care, and 7. Play.Temple Grandin, as a person with autism, brings her unique perspective about animal emotions and behavior to her readers. Her tendency to "think in pictures", rather than in words--among other things--aids her ability to "see things from animals point of view". Despite the fact that she is autistic, she has achieved an almost unheard of success in the "real world", academically and within the industry of animal husbandry, as also the lay public. Dr. Grandin has authored or co-authored numerous books, and is also a popular speaker."Animals Make Us Human" is not only quite readable to the "lay" audience, but the book is also firmly rooted in scientific research. Her co-author, Catherine Johnson, PhD; is a writer in the field of neuropsychiatry and the brain. The book is well-indexed and extensively footnoted. This is a huge improvement over her earlier book,"Animals in Translation". She sites over one hundred scientific papers (which I find amazing)that help back up the information she bases on her personal intuition and experiences with the animals she works with. Also, she loves them.I found her previous book, "Animals in Translation", intriguing and readable. Although I found much of her reasoning to be rather speculative, it did give me a lot of food for thought. I found myself quoting from it, or remembering passages that relating to dogs or cats that made me see my pets in a different light. While she writes lots of interesting things about these house pets, her very favorite animal is the cow. I just love the part where she lies in the middle of the cow pasture, until the cows get curious and come over to her and lick her face!I've been excited to read Grandin's new book,"Animals make us Human"; every since I listened to a 38 minute interview she gave on the NPR "Fresh Air" program on January 5th. This subject promises to be just as interesting and eminently relevant to us human-animals. The first chapter, "What Do Animals Need?" laid a good basis for understanding the subsequent chapters. In "A Dog's Life" I learned that some assumptions that we make about dogs, e.g. pack behavior and the concept of "alpha wolf" may not be entirely correct. (No spoilers here! You'll have to read it yourself to find out why!). The next chapters are also about my animal favorites: Cats and Horses. Of course we read about livestock animals (Grandin's speciality), as well as wild and captive wild animals.Regarding prices and availability of the book, I checked all the major national bookstores, and each of them had a significantly higher price for this book than the price here at Amazon. Some of the stores don't even have the book on their shelves yet. So you can get it faster and cheaper from Amazon. Free two-day delivery for members of Amazon Prime. Or add $3.99, as I did, for overnight delivery. An excellent price for an excellent book. I also appreciate that the book's binding, print, and the paper it is printed on is good quality. It's a keeper. Recommended.

Temple Grandin does a great job of introducing the basics of animal emotions and learning patterns, then goes on to compare and contrast various domesticated species. Who knew cats do not respond to negative reinforcement :-) (I think my cat may have collaborated on that chapter.)Super fun book, especially if you are already familiar with the author’s work on agricultural animal handling.

Dr. Grandin is able to share unassumingly, simply, and from a unique and very impressively informed perspective.The opening chapter ('What Animals Need') primarily discusses topics I felt pretty acquainted with, but Dr. Grandin's attitudes and approach toward animals, along with her impressive-while-simply-stated knowledge is reflected immediately in this chapter and I felt I gleaned much from it.Following this first chapter are eight more chapters - each about 30 to 40 pages in length - and each dealing with a specific topic. They include:"A Dog's Life"; "Cats"; "Horses"; "Cows"; "Pigs"; "Chickens and Other Poultry"; "Wildlife"; "Zoo Animals" and finally an afterward entitled, "Why Do I Still Work for the Industry."In the chapter about dogs I found new information, gained from recent wolf-studies, which was particularly of interest. These more recent studies offer a whole new slant on our currently accepted notions of "The Alpha Male" and the dynamics of the pack thus offering a perhaps even deeper understanding of our own dogs.I enjoyed Grandin's scientific perspective which reevaluates and corrects popularized conceptions as new information is obtained through scientific study. As her information is very well documented, further reading and study on specific areas of interest becomes quite simple.I personally have shied away from, or quickly glanced over a few sections I've come across in this book which discuss in brief, simple, frank terms, incidents of cruelty toward animals - particularly in zoos and in the meat industry. I've done so simply because such things haunt me. On the other hand, if we are going to be allowed to make responsible choices concerning what we actively support (e.g. - do we pay a zoo or a particular meat vendor to be cruel?) then it is certainly a vital service Grandin provides in revealing these situations and directing us toward how to avoid supporting such horrors.To anyone who has pets; goes to zoos; eats or buys meat or dairy products; has or deals with children - actually, for all of us who share this planet with other animals & with wildlife - I can recommend this book and the invaluable insights it offers.Finally, I just have to add - I love the beautiful cover. Yeah, it's paperback - but I love it.

The Author of this and several other books is remarkable. The recent HBO movie brought Temple Grandin's extraordinary story to a wider audience. Diagnosed Autistic at four years old, the story of her "opening doors" to achieve a PhD in animal husbandry and a full professorship is inspirational. As is her significant contribution to animal welfare in the meat production industry. This was an easy read and very enjoyable. And, sometimes, useful for its insight into animal mentality. She is dispassionate, clear thinking and, probably, most of the time, right. But there's the caveat. She does acknowledge when she is offering an opinion, rather than a scientifically demonstrated fact. (And, by the way shows just how limited our body of scientifically demonstrated fact really is!) This is a valuable and inspirational book which tries to tread carefully through the minefield of human sentiment regarding animals and animal welfare. Her unsentimental and realistic perspective is refreshing. The extent of our ignorance and how that ignorance brings suffering to animals is depressing. But anyone who cares about their pet, or about animal welfare, will truly enjoy Dr. Grandin's perspective.

I am a great admire of this Philanthropist, Animal lover and great successful woman . Anything from her is 100% quality

This is the opinion of an “animal lover” on this book. And by that I mean I don’t eat animals, I don’t wear animals, and my pets are allowed on the bed. While I found this book highly informative and useful, I also found it highly disturbing. This is what the table-of-content should read like, IMO: “1: How animals think/feel”, “2: How dogs think/feel”, “3: How cats think/feel”, “4: How horses think/feel”, “5: How to kills cows ‘humanly’”, “6: How to kills pigs ‘humanly’”, “7: How to kills chickens ‘humanly’”, “8: Wildlife ‘research’ should happen in the wild”, “9: Zoo: concentration camp for animals”, “Afterword: Rationalization on why helping to kill animals is OK”. I think chapter 5/6/7 aren’t a good fit for what I assume is the “core audience”, which are people who like animals, rather than people who ear money by killing them.

libro molto interessante per chiunque ami o conviva con degli animali. L'autrice ci insegna a capire le loro reazioni ed emozioni, diverse e più ricche di quanto comunemente si creda.

今まで読んだ動物の本で１番わかりやすく、勉強になりました。犬だけでなく、様々な動物の行動について読むことで、視野が広がりました。

un point de vue unique, instinctif et logique à la fois, qui prend en compte tous les aspects et facteurs concernant les animaux. A must read