Profile – Temple Grandin (b. 1947)

Temple Grandin is Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, but she is no ordinary professor. Diagnosed with brain damage at the age of two, she is autistic, acts as a spokesperson for those with autism, and invented a ‘hug box’ or ‘squeeze machine’ to calm others. After a difficult and miserable time at school, she not only researched and wrote about autism but did a PhD on environmental enrichment for pigs. She believes that the autistic person’s sense of being feared, dismissed, and threatened by everything gives her special insight into animals’ experience, noting that cattle are often disturbed by things most people don’t even notice. Although redesigning slaughterhouses may not sound like a compassionate job, this is one way she has used her understanding of animal minds to improve their welfare. Her life was the subject of a 2010 biographical film, and a documentary about her was entitled The woman who thinks like a cow.