Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

• argues that language is not a requirement for consciousness--and that animals do have consciousness
• applies the autism theory of "hyper-specificity" to animals, showing that animals and autistic people are so sensitive to detail that they "can't see the forest for the trees"--a talent as well as a "deficit"
• explores the "interpreter" in the normal human brain that filters out detail, leaving people blind to much of the reality that surrounds them--a reality animals and autistic people see, sometimes all too clearly
• explains how animals have "superhuman" skills: animals have animal genius
• compares animals to autistic savants, declaring that animals may in fact be autistic savants, with special forms of genius that normal people do not possess and sometimes cannot even see
• examines how humans and animals use their emotions to think, to decide, and even to predict the future 
• reveals the remarkable abilities of handicapped people and animals 
• maintains that the single worst thing you can do to an animal is to make it feel afraid
  
  
  

The book is badly organized. You will have to read every page. You may not be interested in the long pages where she talks about slaughter houses, but then right in the middle of a paragraph you suddenly come across a bit of wisdom that you would not want to have missed. Right then you must underline it or you will never find it back again.

The upshot of this book is that animals do not have a fully functioning frontal lobe, nor do autistic people, and she tells us throughout the book what that is like, over and over again until you start to get a deep understanding of what it is like. We get a better understanding of ourselves too. The frontal lobe "puts it all together", and having put it all together, we race over the details like a speed boat over water. We do not see the details. An autistic person on the other hand, can not help but see them. He sees all the details, and only the details. He is overwhelmed by them. He sees all forty shades of brown. He can not see the forest for the trees, and more trees, and more trees. He hears every tone. He smells every odor. His life is a jumble of details. As you might expect, her book is rich in details about her own life and about all the animals she knows and when you emerge at the other end of the book, you feel immersed. Being a "normal" person you can not remember all the details, but you "know" something about these people's lives, and about animals' lives in a way you could never get from a text book. And yet, at the same time, she also has a doctorate and she does her own research. She has the training to write the text book, but then, being autistic, she can not. She does not hold the whole picture and therefore it remains a badly organized book. That is the message. That is what it is like to be autistic. That is what it is like to be an animal.

Nicholas Dormaar
British Columbia, Canada.


fascinating   February 1, 2005
S. Good (Cheboygan, MI)
21 out of 24 found this review helpful

I am a wildlife rehabilitator and do a good deal of reading about animals and their needs/behavior etc. 'Animals in Translation' is the most facinating book on animals that I've ever come across. It includes examples of wildlife as well as domestic and farm animals. It's beautifully written and the author makes very complicated information completely comprehensible to the non scientific person. In her book, Ms Grandin has opened the door to the mysteries of the animal kingdom and in doing so, made us wiser to their plight of living amongst humans. This book has answered many questions and given me a whole new perspective on our furry friends. Anyone who is curious about animals, has a pet or works with animals, should be reading the material written in this book.


Incredible insights   March 16, 2006
Irv West (Upstate rural New York)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I have a llama farm, and this book has given me incredible insights in to their thinking (yes, thinking), and their fears. Consequently, I am able to work with them better, solve problems more easily, and enjoy my time with them to the fullest.

One example: I was walking my llama across a field that had mud puddles. The sun had come up from the direction we were heading. My llama resisted going -- uncharacteristic behavior for him. Then I realized that the sun was reflecting off the puddles and shining toward him. It would not have been noticeable to me, had I not read the material on animal's sensory perceptions. So he and I walked a bit further on the road and transversed the field at a 90 degree angle. No reflections, and no resistance!

Awesome.


For me, a guide to understanding all the mistakes I've made   October 24, 2006
Eric D. Austrew (Brookline, MA United States)
14 out of 17 found this review helpful

About a year and a half ago, one of our two small dogs rejected her crate. The crate was a small metal cage that she would sleep in at night. For the first five years of her life she had been happy, even eager, to get in at night. But suddenly, it seemed that the very thought of the cage terrified her. She would spend the entire night throwing herself against the sides, hitting the door with her paw, and scratching the plastic tray that was the bottom piece in an attempt to dig her way out. About this time my wife very wisely left for Sweden for several weeks, and after ten days without sleep I capitulated and let the dog stay out of the cage at night.

I once enjoyed a blissfully dog-free bed. Today I sometimes wake up with a wet nose touching mine. If only I had read this book before that happened. Temple Grandin is an autistic and an expert on animal behavior, and she is convinced that the two go together. Whether or not her theory that some of the changes in the brains of autistic people mirror the natural condition of many animals is correct or not, the power of her insights are undeniable.

She skillfully leads the reader through the mental life of animals, emphasizing the areas where the way our brains process information is so different from those of animals that we often don't even consider that there might be alternatives. For instance, in one section she suggests that animals experience pain much less keenly than humans do, noting that often they will show no signs of discomfort even when they are clearly injured. On the other hand, she says, fear may be as debilitating for animals as severe pain is for humans. Both humans and animals experience both pain and fear, but animals experience fear as the ultimate unpleasantness, just as humans experience pain.

Other sections expose other facets of animals behavior that seem nonsensical at first, but seem perfectly logical when placed in the correct context. Many of her lessons involve putting herself in the place of the animals involved, on the theory that her autistic brain will let her naturally see their motivations. The amazing thing is how often it seems to work, producing not just an enthralling book but concrete advances in animal handling systems for meat packing plants and horse trainers. After reading this book I'm convinced that I could have solved the problem with my dog by finding what small detail was causing her to panic and changing it - examples in the book show that it could have been something as simple as painting the cage or moving it from one corner to another.

I can't recommend this book highly enough, especially if you want to keep your dog on the floor and the bed to yourself.