Animals in Translation

Profoundly attracted to animals from childhood, Temple Grandin began early on to make links between the autistic and the animal views of the world. Farmers and breeders were baffled that she could come in and invariably pinpoint the cause of any aberrant or troublesome behaviour in their animals. Grandin, in turn, was baffled that they couldn’t spot the problems themselves – until she realized that they just weren’t visually oriented the way she and the animals and that meant really taking in ALL of the details of the scene. ‘Normal people’, as she consistently calls them, might use their more prominent frontal lobes to tidy experience into language and concepts, but miss a whole ‘register’ of visual data that didn’t fit their expectations. Animals in Translation is an astonishing tale of curing rapist roosters, honouring the genius of squirrels, the rhyming schemes of whale-song or diagnosing why a horse might be afraid of all men in black hats. Full of specific practical advice as well as startling information – with ‘A Behaviour Troubleshooting Guide’ for animals at the end, this book will be treasured by animal handlers, farmers and breeders, pet owners and all animal lovers – and it is as much a revelation about life with autism as it is about life with animals.