Looking At Improving Animal's Lives

Book #17 was one that I received from my Twitter friends @BlueberryCat and @KayakGal. They know how much I love animals and shared this book with me. It was "Animals Make Us Human: Creating The Best Life For Animals" by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson. I had seen it while browsing at a book store and had considered buying it, but never did. I'm very glad they sent it to me! Coincidentally, the same night I finished the book (Sunday, August 29, 2010) the Temple Grandin documentary won a ton of Emmys!

This is the second book I have read by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson. The first one was "Animals In Translation". This book was much easier for me to read. I'm not sure if this book had more of Dr. Johnson's voice in it or if the editing was different, but it is much less "staccato" as I described the first book and flowed much better.

The title, "Animals Make Us Human", is a bit misleading, in my opinion. The focus is not so much on how animals effect us, but how we can improve the lives of animals, whether they are our pets, our food, or under our care for conservation.

My favorite chapters in the book were: A Dog's Life (chapter 2), Cats (chapter 3) and Zoos (chapter 9). Obviously, this is because these are the animals that interest me the most. If you are interested in livestock, poultry, or wildlife, you will find chapters discussing these animals as well.

Dr. Grandin is very scientific, so this is not a warm and fuzzy book. She discusses the "Blue-Ribbon Emotions" and how they determine an animal's behavior. It was very interesting to me to see how humans, dogs and cats came to live together thousands of years ago and what drives our relationships today.

If you're up for a challenging yet educational read, check this book out. You are bound to learn something you didn't know before.

Something More Scientific

My tenth book of the year was "Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior" by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson. This was a book sent to me by my Twitter friend @BlueberryCat, who knows I am an animal lover.

"Animals in Translation" looks at the similarities between animals and autistic people. Temple Grandin is able to give examples of how her life with autism parallels certain animal behavior. She has many interesting theories based on her observances, however I'm not sure if I can completely believe in everything she says until studies have been conducted backing her up. She has clearly done extensive research in the field of animal behavior and has had much success. She has worked with other scientists and the book has a very thorough bibliography. There are also footnotes throughout the book citing her various sources. I believe her to be very well educated and think that even if some of her theories prove to be wrong, the time she puts into study of them will be quite beneficial.

One thing I must note about the book is that even though there is a co-author, Catherine Johnson, the book seems very much to be written with Temple Grandin's voice. That being said, it can be very "staccato". Also, she can go from using very technical, scientific terms right to using elementary phrases to describe an animal or its behavior. I found this to be a bit jarring as I was reading; it seemed to interrupt the flow of the text when it happened.

The book focuses primarily on livestock rather than house pets, so be aware of that if you are hoping for some insight regarding your kitty cat. That is not where the author's specialty lies and she doesn't try to pretend that it does. I did take exception to her discussion of certain types of dog breeds. I think she focused a bit much on Rottweilers, among others, and their "aggressive nature". I am a big believer that most of the time, with the proper training, these breeds of dogs can be trusted completely. This is where she and I disagree.

It took me quite a long while to finish this book. It was slow reading and could be quite repetitive. I also felt at times she went off on tangents by telling a story that didn't quite pertain at the moment. I had been wanting to read Temple Grandin's books because I find her to be very fascinating. This was the first one I read and will not be the last. However, I will go into the next one understanding that there will be little entertainment value and I may have to struggle through it like I did this one.