Dr. Temple Grandin

The weird stuff I find on the net. Here's the website of the scientist who devised the curved chutes that steaks (I mean cattle) go down to be slaughtered. Curved chutes prevent the burgers (I mean cows) from seeing what's coming.

http://www.grandin.com/

Apparently, Dr. Temple Grandin has appeared widely on talk shows and published many books, explaining... her autism. Yeah. She was born autistic and she managed to "come out" of it and lead a successful career consulting for McDonalds.

http://templegrandin.com/templehome.html

I had never heard of her until today. I'm not surprised that she uses her media spotlight to talk about how she bravely faught autism, instead of expanding on her contributions to cow slaughtering.

As her reward for bringing herself out of the darkness, what say we lead her down a curved chute and put a bolt in her brain before we slit her open from chin to groin and drain the blood from her body? Hey, I'm just sayin. According to her research, if we do it right, she'll feel no pain.

I like the picture of her nuzzling a cow on the templegrandin.com website. Awww.

What the heck do you have against the poor woman? I'm shocked that you would sentence someone to death for... finding a more humane way of killing the animals we eat.
Are you some kind of rabid vegan or something?

Well gee, I guess overcoming autism only counts if you go on to devote your life to working for charity or some other noble pursuit. I wasn't aware that working in the beef industry cancelled out any other positive aspects of your life; nice of you to point that out. It's really sad that the rest of the world has failed to comply with your beliefs.

Here's an idea: how about, if you have a problem with the way beef is slaughtered, don't eat it? If you're not interested in hearing how this woman overcame autism, close the webpage, say a little prayer of thanks that you're morally superior to her and the rest of us meat eaters, and go do something else.

Next to her, we are all Grade A Morons. She invented Bovine University!

Lets play "find the sicko" in this thread. Hmm, is it the woman who overcame autism and published a book on it and works in the beef industry including inventing more humane ways to killing cows? No, I don't think so.

Yeah, I apologize for that bit of shock value. I was thrown by what I saw as an apparent disconnect between loving animals and leading them to slaughter. This journal entry by the cow lady sheds some light on the issue:

http://www.spinninglobe.net/cowlady.htm

Apparently, she views the act of soothing animals as they are led to slaughter as a sacred, meaningful act. A stairway to Heaven. Who can argue with religion?

I did find her answer to the "why aren't you a vegetarian" question to be a bit unsatisfying. She didn't really answer the question. She used tactics that meat eaters often use to cloud the issue:

1) vegetarianism is "unnatural"

2) a vegetarian diet is nutritionally insufficient

3) vegetarians are hypocrites if they aren't "totally pure"

4) confusing the distinctions between vegetarianism and veganism

All these arguments are bunk and don't really explain why she isn't vegetarian.

She works to make the act of slaughter less traumatic for the animals. There's Good in that. The meat industry wins by getting better tasting beef. The slaughterhouse workers win by feeling less numb and sickened by their jobs. Dr. Grand wins by having a religious experience. The cows win by... umm.. how do the cows win, again? By being less stressed when they get to Heaven, I suppose.

Seriously, I appreciate her efforts to lessen cruelty in the slaughter industry. I do. I'm glad she's helping animals suffer less. But, how about if we work to end the suffering? By not eating them.

I'm vegetarian, not vegan, by choice and by necessity. As to choice, I realize that I live in a society where I can make vegetarian choices. I'm glad for that. I'm finding that stores and restaurants are offering more vegetarian choices all the time. I want to support that change in attitude. I believe that a vegetarian diet is healthier for me, for the planet, and for the animals. It's a choice. If I had to kill animals to survive or to feed my family, I'd do it. Thankfully, I don't.

Since I'm arguing for choice, I should mention that I respect the choice of those who continue eating meat. I'm not looking down on anyone for eating meat. Truth be told, I still like the taste and smell of meat. I still eat some meat "substitutes," like fake burgers. I just don't choose to eat the real thing, anymore. I don't think that makes me a hypocrite or "less" of a vegetarian.

As to the necessity part, the last piece of beef I ate nearly killed me. I ended up in the hospital, throwing up blood. That's not a place I want to go again. As you contemplate your next burger, you may want to give some thought to the risk you're taking by eating meat. Or not.

I transitioned to vegetarianism as gradually as I could, considering my situation. I continued to eat fish for awhile. I've managed to give up seafood, now. I still drink milk and eat cheese. I'm aware of the cruelty of the dairy industry and the health concerns related to dairy consumption, but I haven't been able to quit dairy, yet. Vegetarianism, like life, is a process. A continual choice.

I've found some good sources for veggie food:
http://www.vegieworld.com/
http://vegweb.com/

These are great sites. May Wah offers some tasty meat substitutes, including veggie seafood and ham. Vegweb has some good recipes.

As a parent of a child diagnosed with Autism about 9 years ago (this month) - Temple Grandin has been an inspiration and a valuable source of information as to how the mind of a person with autism "thinks".

I remember reading about her way of processing information and it was clearly the same way my daughter learned (Thinking In Pictures). I appreciate the way that she speaks out about her autism.

I am always appreciative of those such as Temple Grandin and our very own Torley Linden that help the general public have a clearer understanding of the spectrum of Autism.

What about cruelty for carrots? Who speaks for the carrots?

*singing* "All we are saying... is give Peas a chance..."

Just had to.

Visualize Whirled Peas

Thank you Magdalene--good to hear about your daughter too.

As there can be much confusion and negative stereotyping, I like to speak from personal experience. Temple Grandin is nothing less than a profound hero of mine; I read her Thinking in Pictures book intensely too, and related to it on numerous levels. For example, I often have dreams that are cinematics which translate into daytime lingerings, like an overlay over what I am actually doing "in realtime". Sometimes it becomes literal: my TORLEY LINDEN bare is such a manifestation of an image which had been running around my head for a few days, and I wanted to create, share it with others in Second Life.

Through Second Life, I've also been able to focus some of my obsessions (watermelons being one) and channel them positively without shame and embarassment. I found repressing it in the past was very dangerous and self-harmful, and not satisfying to living a full life, as different as I found myself.

I eat a lot of watermelons. As irrational as it may sound, going through this thread makes me wonder if I am causing pain (even on a metaphysical, fantastical level: if a watermelon to become an evolved creature in its next life) to what I love most.

Thank you... very interesting comments.

I have always been interested in the different ways we think, and confused by our socioty that tries to force us all into the same cookie cutter shape.

I have all through my life been pegged as a day dreamer. It was on every report card as a kid. Spends too much time daydreaming. I sometimes slip completely away and reading is like being in another world. I was astounded when I saw the statistics on people who have active fantasy lives. (I will have to put my fingers back on those figures, but it was only around 30% of people). I wondered what the other 70% was doing with thier minds when they are waiting in line or for a bus or during the quiet hours of night. Seems very bland to me. I am highly functional as are both of my teens. I have never actually been diagnosed with a problem. Both of my kids have been diagnosed as dyslexic, and one (my dreamer) has the same language retrieval and spelling problems I do.

I have tried to look at my differences as a postive, and I hope I have passed that outlook onto my kids.