SOMA DALAI

Temple Grandin needs no introduction for many, and that was certainly the case for the hundreds of students that packed a lecture theatre from wall-to-wall in the Western College of Veterinary Medicine on March 11.

Temple Grandin is a widely known autistic activist and animal behaviour researcher. She is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and has numerous accomplishments to her name, including being the inventor of the “hug box” used to calm autistic children and being named on Time 100 most influential people of 2010.

The college invited Grandin to speak as a way of introducing their new foundation, the Animal Welfare Fund. According to a press release, the fund will “support animal welfare-related initiatives in research, education and public awareness” at the WCVM.

Following Grandin’s lecture, Joe Stookey, a professor of animal behaviour, said the creation of the Animal Welfare Fund helped mark the 50th anniversary of the WCVM and created opportunities for the public to learn about the college and provide support through donations.

“This is sort of a way the public can participate. They can visit our website, see what we’re doing  and they can be sponsors if they’d like to help us with important work on animal welfare and in education as well,” said Stookey. “We’ve always educated our students but we can sort of put on events like this if we have the right support and we can open it up to the public where they can learn more about animal welfare.”

Stookey’s introduction of Grandin and her work honed in on the subject of animal welfare.

“If it was written, Temple’s mission statement would be to help people and animals. It’s that basic,” he said.

Although Grandin did not speak much about the college’s plans for the fund, she spent nearly an hour highlighting her research into animal behaviour and welfare. Throughout her speech, Grandin touched on how autism has given her a different perspective on animals and has allowed her insight into devising humane systems for animal slaughter.

“Animals are sensory based things,” said Grandin. “I want you to get away from words. They’re going to store their memories as pictures, as smells, as auditory files and then those sensations are going to be linked to emotions. You know a lot of people ask me, ‘How does autism help you work with animals?’ Well, I’m a visual thinker. A lot of people with autism are very specific with their thinking.”

Grandin spoke about the innovation of non-slip flooring and other techniques now widely used in the food industry to ensure animals are treated as humanely as possible. In her lecture, Grandin tied in the ideas of humane treatment of animals with sustainability in the meat and agriculture industry. As an example, she likened the current obsession to maximize meat, egg and dairy production with the frenzy amongst early European cathedral builders to build wider and wider churches.

“There was a point where they couldn’t make them any wider or any higher… The thing that people have a hard time seeing is that where do you stop? On what is optimal production instead of maximal.”

Broken keel bones in laying hens, shortened lifespans in dairy cows and almost non-existent immunity in pigs were some of the consequences Grandin outlined of the “maximize rather than optimize” mentality.

Grandin also spoke about the fragility of modern-day agricultural systems with regards to global supply chains. To illustrate her point, she used the example of cows in China being fed Californian hay due to suppliers not wanting to ship empty containers back across the ocean once clothes and electronics are delivered to the United States.

Although the current agricultural system is efficient, Grandin said that the visible fragility is what is spurring change in communities.

“I think this is one of the reasons why people are getting more and more interested in buying local. I think people deep down inside are a little worried about food.”