On the weekend I had the opportunity to hear a speech by Dr. Temple Grandin, the world’s foremost expert on animal handling facilities. The professor of animal science at Colorado State University is an engaging speaker and she had a lecture hall of veterinary medical students in the palm of her hand. Grandin gets lots of practice. She speaks all over the world about livestock and proper handling and she has written several books about animal behaviour, welfare and facility design. One of the most recent is Animals Make Us Human, which was on the Canadian and the New York Times bestseller lists.
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Grandin is of average height and blocky build. She doesn’t have traditional movie star looks, as you see in the photo accompanying this blog. But her life story of struggle and achievement is certainly a fascinating story line.
HBO thinks so too. The cable network has produced a movie about it, simply titled Temple Grandin. It is due to air on Feb. 6. You can see the trailer by clicking here. Claire Danes plays the title role and does a fair job of copying Grandin’s speech style. The promo makes the movie intriguing, and although I don’t get HBO at home or in the Western Producer newsroom, I plan to find a way to watch this movie.
I came across an interview on meatingplace.com in which HBO Films president Len Amato was interviewed about the Grandin project.
An excerpt:“We loved the challenge of creating a narrative around someone who lives in the world in a unique way. While we wanted to explore Temple’s experiences and challenges with autism, we also wanted to show her unique perspective and celebrate the idea of being different.”
In her speech on Jan. 16, Grandin referred to the movie a few times. She was on the set for some of the filming and assisted with some of the livestock handling.
Another intriguing mention in her lecture referenced her perception of a generation gap that results in fewer people with knowledge about animals. Few people have had contact with farm animals. Many have never had pets.
She told the story of a book signing at a Costco where she talked with many store customers. “I was amazed at the number of people, especially younger people, who had never had anything to do with animals.”
Typical of the talk, Grandin didn’t elaborate on her concern over this. Given the context, however, I think she is worried that less human experience with animals will mean greater risk of improper animal handling.
