Temple Grandin

[Kali]

On Feb. 6 at 8 p.m., HBO will premiere an original film based on the inspirational, true story of Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes. Temple Grandin paints a picture of a young woman’s perseverance and determination while struggling with the isolating challenges of autism.

Grandin became a successful doctor in animal science through her unique connection to animals and is now a world-renowned consultant in the field. She is widely recognized within the animal welfare and livestock-handling industries as a pioneer in the ethical treatment of animals. Grandin is the best-selling author of “Thinking in Pictures,” “Animals in Translation” and “Humane Livestock Handling.”

HBO and Barnes & Noble will host a special book signing and discussion with Temple Grandin on Monday, Jan. 25 at 1 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at 150 East 86th St (at Lexington Ave) in New York. HBO and Barnes & Noble invite the public to this free event.

Information related to autism and the HBO film will be displayed in all 775 Barnes & Noble stores, including a free, downloadable coloring book that tells Temple’s story through illustrations created by artists with autism.

trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHxxOKnH9YE&feature=player_embedded

[Tikki]

1. Thanks for the 'heads up'...

Having worked with autistic students...I am very aware of Temple Grandin. Look forward to the movie.


Tikki

[LeftyMom]

2. "a pioneer in the ethical treatment of animals"

:rofl:

[Kali]

6. she has made a huge difference

laugh away, I know it isn't your personal idea of a perfect world where we all subsist on fake meat or worse, but she has done good work and her personal accomplishments are remarkable.

[LeftyMom]

7. She's done no such thing.

She's cynically exploited myths about her disability (that she has some sort of special abilities to compensate a la "Rain Man"- autistic people have no special facility with non-human animals) into a career as an apologist for an appalling industry. Her "inspections" are a joke because the plants find out about them in advance, clean up and slow down the line for show, then go back to the status quo when she leaves. Her innovations are bullshit- using curving ramps doesn't matter because animals can hear and smell and are already stressed in novel situations- her real gig isn't keeping animals from being afraid, it's maximizing profit potential by minimizing bruising prior to slaughter- her own speeches to industry groups (they're dumb enough to put them on the internets) make that quite clear.

The whole Temple Grandin mythology- that her autism makes her specially qualified to understand animals, is at best, pseudoscientific nonsense.

[KamaAina]

8. Apparently mine doesn't give me a special gift to understand DU posters, either

:eyes:

All I can tell you about us and animals is that cats were my friends many years before people ever were.

Aside: According to porfessionals' limited understanding of autism, a person with the condition, such as Temple, would be "incapable of "cynically exploiting" anything.

[LeftyMom]

9. Her behavior sure doesn't suggest she has special facility with animals.

She thinks up more efficient means of killing them. Her entire professional career consists of her mythologizing her disease and her supposed special connection with the animals whose slaughter she facilitates. If that's not cynical exploitation, somebody needs to redefine both terms.

BTW, have you ever listened to one of her talks about her slaughterhouse design gig? It's beyond creepy, the way she talks about the proper way to kill a steer with a captive bolt pistol. She sounds like she gets a little thrill out of it. I don't know her from Eve, but it sounds like autism is the least of her problems, just to listen to her talk.

[msanthrope]

12. She has the affect typical of adult autistics...it's pejorative to call that 'creepy'.

Seriously--calling her affect, which is part and parcel of her autism, 'creepy' is really judgmental and is a slam against adult autistics, many of who have that same affect, cadence, and speech patterns.

Jeebus, get some education.....

Edited to add--she doesn't have a 'disease', either.....

[LeftyMom]

16. It has nothing to do with her autism.

I've been around plenty of adults with autism and autism spectrum disorders. She's not creepy because she's autistic, she's creepy because she sounds turned on talking about shooting cows in the head.

[KamaAina]

17. Mahalo (thank you)

she doesn't have a 'disease', either.....

One of the original researchers in the field, Hans Asperger (for whom the closely related Asperger syndrome is named) took pains to poiunt out that what he was studying was NOT a disease but a stable personality trait.

[msanthrope]

22. wait? you mean we can't cure autism? Alert Jenny McCarthy!

(Sorry. I'm bad at humor...)

And you are quite welcome. I'm happy with my aspie kid. She's not diseased, full of toxins, or in need of cure. She just needs a bit of help navigating this strange world of ours......

[KamaAina]

25. Welcome to our world!

:hi:

Did you know? DU has an Asperger's/PDD group (parents welcome, too):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=387

[msanthrope]

27. Thank you--I'll check it out. n/t

[Kali]

10. I know you have so much experience working and moving livestock

so you would be well qualified to comment on whether curving structures work or not. FYI maximizing profit by reducing bruising is still lowering stress - it is all tied together. Handling them regularly and using the same types of ramps, chutes, and other equipment/structures helps keep that "novelty" factor down. Lower stress is both more humane and more profitable. Is profit such a sin that it can't be a factor in achieving your supposed goals of less suffering?

Whether she exploits her disability or not seems a rather mean-spirited subjective judgment - I'll let you keep that for yourself. I have only read one book, seen a video presentation, and rummaged around on her website. Didn't really pick up the woo - perhaps you are correct and I haven't caught it yet. In the book I read, it was all pretty logical how she made the connections she did. And having a bit of experience in the field I have been able to see for myself much of the common sense that underlies what she seems to actually promote.

Clue for LeftyMom and everybody else: pETA videos are propaganda - the worst of the worst - designed to elicit the emotions you feel, they are not representative of the vast majority of even the biggest slaughter companies.

Too bad the fear of life and death in our culture prevents people from being exposed to a rational display of the process. It isn't Disney, but it sure as hell isn't a pETA video either. If reality were not posited as either extreme (mass produced chemical crap vs. monk-like veganism) normal, healthy, sustainable food production might make a come-back.

[msanthrope]

13. Heck--PETA likes Grandin, it's the loons to left of PETA that hate her.....

Tough to believe, but PETA's given her awards for her slaughterhouse designs/reforms....it's the abolitionist movement, to the left of PETA, who think she's a mini-Hitler redesigning Auschwitz.

[Kali]

14. I did not know that.

Thanks.

[jmowreader]

38. I didn't know anyone was "to the left" of PETA. Thanks for the heads-up

[LeftyMom]

15. 1. You don't know.

For obvious reasons of privacy I'm not going to list my qualifications on the intertubes, but I'm not in the habit of shooting off at the mouth on things I don't know about, and I haven't started now.

2. I'm not terribly sure why you're going on about peta videos. I certainly didn't mention any, and for that matter I've barely seen any. They do good hidden camera work, but I'm not in the habit of watching every bit of it, nor am I a fan of theirs otherwise. Please don't change the subject.

3. My point about her aim to increase profitability is this: if, as she claimed, she had some special kinship with animals, she'd be working to improve their lives and not to streamline their death and dismemberment. She knows perfectly well that what she does is shine up an ugly industry, and she does it for them well. If she actually wanted to improve animal treatment at slaughterhouses and not profitability first and foremost, she'd stop giving advance notice of inspections.

[Kali]

20. yeah I know - your grandparent had a farm, didn't everybody?

I am sure you have tons of livestock experience. NOT.

I don't know what you are going on about re: announced inspections - she isn't an inspector, she is a PhD in animal science. And obviously a consultant to the industry - is that what you mean by inspections? When she gets HIRED to do evaluations?

[LeftyMom]

23. Yep, no idea.

:rofl: Don't worry, I don't mind.

She rubber stamps facilities so they can use that for their PR. If she had any integrity she'd do her visits unannounced. Instead, her walkthroughs are announced in advance, so the facilities tidy up, make sure they're well-staffed and slow the line down. It's sort of the slaughterhouse equivalent of making your mother in law call before she visits so you can vacuum and make sure the kids are tidy, but the problem is that she's lending her credibility to facilities she knows perfectly well run entirely differently when she's not there.

[Kali]

28. "lending her credibility"

Does she issue some kind of certificate? Is she endorsing clients? I have no idea but suspect not. Seems she is doing the best she can to train people/companies to be more humane. Seems more effective than pissing everybody off, ranting against what the VAST majority of the world considers a normal lifestyle and diet.

Because entrapment and "gotcha" is how consultants get clients, work, and actually effect change.

I bet she has changed more behavior, reduced more animal suffering by educating and working with people in the system than you and yours will EVER manage by spying, shock videos, "rescue farms" (don't call them zoos!), superior attitudes, judgmental pronouncements, and/or pissing everybody off. Your successes happen when you show people how to live/eat the way your agenda promotes, not by condemning other choices.

And sure as hell not by attacking someone who probably agrees more with you than you feel comfortable acknowledging.

[msanthrope]

11. Temple Grandin, a cynic? Sweet Jeebus, I've never read anything so wrong....

I've never understood why the 'abolitionist' lobby ever thought that attacking Temple Grandin was going to score points--it's readily apparent to any thinking person who listens to her that Temple Grandin is no apologist, not a cynic, and certainly not the evil person you make her out to be.

Your mis-characterization is so off that it undercuts your obvious agenda.

Have you actually met and conversed with adult autistic individuals? Cynical? Not even close....

[LeftyMom]

19. Yep.

I've been around plenty of autistic adults. None of them sounded like they were damp in the panties at the thought of shooting a captive bolt pistol into a steer "correctly." Her being autistic has nothing to do with it- she's creepy for reasons that would be every bit as disturbing if she were neurotypical.

[Kali]

21. somebody sure sounds creepy

and it ain't Dr. Grandin.

[LeftyMom]

24. Whatever.

[Kali]

30. in the interest of being objective I just looked at two videos from her website

http://www.grandin.com/videos/videos.html

I looked at the "Proper stunning of cattle with a captive bolt stunner renders cattle instantly insensible (Part 1 of 3)"

and the "Moving cattle quietly out of a gate"

Her speech and mannerisms seemed identical with both subjects. I suppose she might be getting her panties wet talking about moving cattle through a gate, but I suspect what has YOU disturbed is the frank and detailed discussion of the stun process. (if you have really even looked at her videos and not just some spliced version designed to get you reacting just like you are) I think you and many in our culture have difficulty talking about the subject of slaughter in an technical (unemotional) way. (and that is fine, I understand squeamish but please don't make it sound like someone who is an expert in the subject is somehow getting off on it just because they are capable of taking about it objectively).


edit to add: I'm certainly no expert in human behavior, or autism in any way so perhaps others would look at the videos and make their own judgments as well.

http://www.grandin.com/videos/videos.html

[KamaAina]

31. I doubt that she is "getting her panties wet" about anything

in "Emergence: Labelled Autistic" she speaks of a painful childhood gynecological infection. She has never married and did not appear to me to have much sex drive at all (once again, this doesn't apply to all of us,. least of all me! :-) )

[msanthrope]

26. You nailed it. n/t

[Odin2005]

37. Many autistics have a disconnect between emotions and nonverbal indicators of emotional states.

I can look very sad or terrified even though I am perfectly happy.

[KamaAina]

29. Actually, I'm one of the biggest cynics around

but as the saying goes, "If you've met one person with autism... you've met one person with autism."

[Kali]

32. ha

:thumbsup:

[Odin2005]

36. RIIIIGHT, and you haver SOOOO much experience working with livestock.

:eyes:

[hippywife]

39. Gee...

since I have that poster on ignore, let me guess who it is you're speaking with here. :eyes:

I have listened to Temple Grandin speak and found her informative and fascinating. :hi:

[Odin2005]

40. It's LeftyMom, calling Grandin an evil monster.

[hippywife]

41. Yeah,

I knew that. Was being facetious. Just in that kinda mood, I guess.

:hi:

[KamaAina]

3. Wouldn't you know, I, who once co-presented with her, don't have HBO

:(

That B&N is right near Mom as well as a friend who's on the spectrum and is a talented composer and keyboardist.

[Kali]

18. I bet it will be on You tube or something fairly soon!

I don't have TV, but from what I know of her it sounds like it could be interesting.

What I like is how she has affected a lot of men in the business who tend to "know" it all and rarely listen to a woman, much less somebody with a disability! I always know somebody is more in the line of the way I like my cattle handled if they know about her than the old yahoo rodeo way of doing things.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. I want to see this. Claire was on Letterman last night.

Autism is fascinating to me.

[Brickbat]

5. I don't have HBO, but I find her work very interesting.

[Kali]

33. kick

for the weekend (although maybe I should just start a new thread, hard to believe ARers hate her:eyes:)

[Ptah]

34. Wish I had HBO so I could see this.

:thumbsup:

[Odin2005]

35. God Dammit, I wish I had HBO!

:cry: