I've heard and read so many good things about Temple Grandin and was therefore quite excited about finally reading one of her books. Unfortunately, I was completely bored by it. The book had such a condescending tone . In many ways, it was nothing more than a training manual on the "proper" ways to handle animals; be they pets, livestock, wild, or zoo animals. When she wasn't talking down to the people who were doing things wrong, she was busy tooting her own horn and singing her own praises. Boring ! ( )

I thought I would skim through this book. However, I found every subject she covered fascinating. As always, Grandin is insightful. Her research and opinions definitely changed the way I treat and look at animals. It will also change the way you eat. ( )

Really interesting parts about behavioral science. But after a while feels like the book would be more interesting for a farmer than a consumer like myself.

Still, this was a decent follow-on to Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. ( )

Any Temple Grandin book is worth reading to open up your mind to different ways of thinking and how you may treat others with different 'learning' abilities. ( )

She starts by describing the basic animal emotions, then describes the primary emotions for each animal throughout the book.

I bought this book for the chapters on Cat & Dogs. Those chapters were meaningful. The chapters in the middle I didn’t relate to so much, but the chapters at the end really caught my interest.

Contents
1. What do animals need?
2. A dog’s live
3. Cats
4. Horses
5. Cows
6. Pigs
7. Chickens and other poultry
8. Wildlife
9. Zoos
Afterward: Why do I still work for the industry?

Some statements that caught my interest:

“Don’t go toward a dangerous dog face to face, and never make eye contact. Primate like face-to-face introductions; dogs don’t.” (Page 58 of 340)

In the chapter on horses: “Even when you don't get into a vicious cycle, negative reinforcement often has a down side. the most important drawback is that fear is a very painful emotion for all animals, and you don’t want to base your relationship with an animal on fear, especially not with a high-fear prey animal.” (Page 128)

People are slow learners
“Even when plants know they’re losing money by shocking and yelling at the animals, they still do it. In one slaughter plant I documented a $500 to $1,000 savings per day after I had trained employees to handle cattle quietly, but when I left, workers quickly went back to their old rough ways. ... why do people keep doing it?” (Page 165)

“Preventing rough handling is like controlling speeding on the highways. You need constant measurement and enforcement. I have observed that some people enjoy abusing animals. Those people shouldn’t be working with animals at all.” (Page 171)

“Animals like novelty if they can choose to investigate it; they fear novelty if you shove it in their faces.” (Page 287) ( )