Animals Make Us Human: Creating The Best Life for Animals by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson.
Autism has given the equivalent of a sixth sense to Temple Grandin, an expert in designing humane systems for handling animals used in agriculture. She has developed an uncommon affinity for understanding the sensibilities, sensitivities, motivations and fears of nonhuman animals. This 2009 book shares practical insights to help people better understand the animals in their lives, including dogs, cats, horses, pigs, cows, chickens, zoo inhabitants, and wildlife. As Grandin helps you learn about learning, you will experience flashes of insight page by page. You’ll discover the real reasons why negative reinforcement (such as in horse training) so often fails, what works better – and why. You’ll come to understand why nonhuman (and human) animals react to novel stimuli they way they do, the unfortunate widespread adoption of animal handling techniques that consistently backfire, core emotions such as fear and seeking – and why, and how, acting in anticipation of a reward is usually more motivating and triggers more brain activity than having the reward. Don’t read just read the parts about the species in your own life; nuggets of enlightenment abound.
For an alternative and enlightening view, please see the editorial by Jeffrey Masson and Jeff Nelson at http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/masson_grandin.htm
