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The Woman who thinks like a Cow

Dr Temple Grandin has a unique ability to understand the animal mind – and she’s convinced her skill is down to her autistic brain.

Temple believes she experiences life like an animal. Her emotions are much simpler than most people’s and she feels constantly anxious. It’s this struggle with overwhelming anxiety that led her to discover just how much she has in common with animals and, in particular, cows.

Using her ability to observe the world through an animal’s eye, she has been able to make an enormous impact on animal welfare. Her greatest achievement has been in the area of slaughterhouses – she has fundamentally changed the way animals are held and slaughtered.

Today she’s an associate professor of animal science, a best-selling author and the most famous autistic woman on the planet.

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  1. Very smart that she figured out the squeeze machine helps her. I like to be squeezed too. I ask my sister or brother sometimes to do hug me as tight as possible.

  2. Awesome documentary and has helped me understand my nephew much better!! Thank you BBC and Temple.

  3. >Temple believes she experiences life like an animal. Her emotions are
    much simpler than most people’s and she feels constantly anxious.

    somehow I don’t think animals are constantly anxious beings nor are they “simpler” in the gamut of expressible emotions than people are. Animals have sh!t figured out for the most part. It’s humans that go nuts over weird stuff day to day, most of it manufactured problems and issues– and in an unnatural world, separate from organic life and the rest of the animal kingdom. She only *believes* the simplicity and anxiousness of animals based on her autism; I give her credit for trying to put herself in the animals’ place, misguided anyhow as I think it to be.

    Also yeah~ I agree with Larissa McKenzie, the meat industry is just a nasty thing.

  4. How can she work in the cruel meat industry with as great an understanding of animals as she does..

    • for helping making it less cruel for gods sake

    • for helping making it less cruel for gods sake!

    • She says “I’ve been trying to make things better in a real practical way….I’m not into ideaology, I’m into ‘what are real practical things that make improvements on the ground”

      She is the one who made “the cruel meat industry” just “the meat industry”.

      • That’s a double negative, the meat industry is inherently cruel. 

        Never does Dr Grandin advocate for animal rights in this documentary, this is a story about her life. While I personally (strongly) disagree with using animals as products, I think it’s important to give credit when credit is due.

        She has ultimately contributed enormously to improve the welfare of animals in the meat industry and I think that’s what really matters, it takes somebody special to achieve what she has.

  5. a beautiful inspiration to all!
     

  6. Amazing woman.