Animals Make Us Human

By Temple Grandin

How do you make an animal happy? Turns out it is not that hard. According to scientists, all animals (humans too) have core emotions, such as seeking and playing and fear and rage. To keep animals happy, reduce fear and provide play and seeking. Seeking is the activity involved mainly in locating food but it can be anything that stimulates an animal to seek. Seek out good grazing, seek out rabbits to chase and eat, seek out a tossed ball. Give these things to an animal and for the most part it will be a lot happier. Herd animals are the easiest to please. Give them a manger full of yummy hay and a couple of buddies and they are fine. Some herd animals need a little more though, like pigs. Pigs love to eat, but they love even more to root around. Researchers have discovered that if pigs are given fresh straw to root around in every day, they are a lot happier. In commercially raised animals, a happy animal is a healthy, growing animal, which is what the producer wants.
The main thrust of this book is the livestock industry and the egg and chicken industry. As the author points out, simple, not very expensive changes improve the quality of life for these animals and these changes not only benefit the animal they benefit the producer. But a lot still needs to be done, especially in the way chickens are raised for meat and eggs. A lot of chickens have it unnecessarily bad, especially the layers, the chickens who supply our eggs. As the author points out, unnecessary cruelty is unreasonable and a lot of these plants simply needed to be better managed and more closely monitored.
Even though the main thrust of the book is geared to the producer, there is also valuable information for pet owners and also a very interesting section on zoos and zoo animals. Something for everyone who has animals or works with them. For pet owners, the author points out that pets left alone all day with no companionship or stimulation are really being abused. In her opinion, livestock raised for slaughter are better off than pets left alone all the time because their quality of life is better, more active, more stimulating. Hopefully books like Temple Grandin's will open all our eyes and inspire us to be more thoughtful and kinder in our dealings with the animals in our lives. This is an excellent and thought-provoking work.

For another review see The New York Times.

New Word

Ethologists: Ethology is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of animal behavior. Ethologists take a comparative approach, studying behaviors ranging from kinship, cooperation, and parental investment, to conflict, sexual selection, and aggression across a variety of species. 'There is such a thing as "human nature," and managers should think about stockpeople and about themselves the way animal ethologists think about animals: as conscious beings who predictably follow the rules of behavior for their species.'