Cooper Farms: - Urner Barry Publications, Inc.

Principal animal welfare advisor…
Temple
Grandin:
replacing
the embrace
“One invention that
gained notoriety was her
‘hug machine’…”
©iStockphoto.com/Marcelo Silva
Bring up the name Temple Grandin to most people and the
response you’ll get will likely be along the lines of, “That’s that
cowboy lady who was at the Emmy’s, right” This would be a true
statement as Grandin did attend the Emmy’s this year adorned
in a “cowlady” outfit as a movie in her honor, entitled “Temple
Grandin”, was nominated for 15 awards. But if that is the entirety
of the response, then there is much more for that person to learn
about this extraordinary woman.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1947, Temple is the daughter
of Richard Grandin and Eustacia Cutler. Because she did not
speak for the first few years of her life, she was diagnosed with
brain damage. Her parents believed otherwise and, after visiting a
doctor, they began providing her with speech therapy. Sometime
later, Temple did start to speak and was eventually accurately
diagnosed with autism. From that point forward, her parents did
their best to treat her the same as all the other kids. She attended
primary schools all
the way through high
school, and ultimately
graduated from
Hampshire Country
School.
Grandin has designed curved cattle chutes as they
prove more efficient because they take advantage
of the natural behavior of cattle.
The next chapters
in her life would
be impressive on
anyone’s resume let
alone someone with
autism. She received
her bachelor’s degree
in psychology from
Franklin Pierce
College in 1970.
Then, five years later,
in a time when it was
much less common for
one to earn a master’s
degree, Temple gained
hers in the field of
animal science from
Dr. Temple Grandin has designed almost half of the livestock control systems for
cattle in the United States and was the subject of the 2010 biopic “Temple Grandin,”
which won seven Emmy Awards in August.
Arizona State University. She then developed this into a doctoral
degree after graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign in 1989.
Throughout all the years, Temple invented ways to improve her
own surroundings and the surroundings of others with conditions
similar to hers. One invention that gained notoriety was her “hug
machine” which helped to relieve the stresses of hypersensitivity to
sound and touch, which are common both to autistic people and,
as Temple would eventually learn, to animals.
This knowledge gave Grandin the idea for sweeping corrals which
are used to this day for leading livestock to slaughter in a more
relaxed manner than was previously practiced. Her designs allowed
workers to transport animals to their final destination without
frightening them. While the main focus of Grandin’s career has
been the design of humane livestock facilities, improved versions
of her “hug machine” are also widely being used in schools for
autistic children.
Temple Grandin has authored several books on the topics of animal
welfare and autism. She’s a regular guest of television programs
and conferences where she speaks on similar subject matter. She
is now 63 years old and going strong. Oh and that movie that was
nominated for all those awards at the Emmy’s that just so happened
to have Temple’s name attached to it—it ended up being the winner
of the night after bringing in five awards in total.UB
Steve Jurvetson | wikipedia.org
VOL. 6, NO. 1 / WINTER 2011 / URNER BARRY’S REPORTER • 27