NY Times Science Times: Cow's Eye View

From an interesting article "Qualities of an Animal Scientist: Cow's Eye View and Autism" in the Science Times section of the NY Times Aug 5, 1997, P B9.

I've come to expect interesting articles in the NY Science Times but this one ranks near the top of my list.

First is tells about the "humane" design of slaughter houses (an odd concept to begin with) and how most slaughter houses today are based on the designs created by Dr. Temple Grandin, an autistic, who has devoted her life to the humane treatment of animals.

But the article does more than describe slaughterhouse design, it tells

• How she was labeled as brain damaged at the age of 2 1/2 and how her mother would not accept this diagnosis,
• How she got interested in slaughter houses,
• How she came to adapt a cattle "squeeze chute" that is used to hold animals for vaccinations to become a "hug" machine that she and other autistics use (some autistics have a hypersensitive nervous system and don't like to touched or hugged but the "hug" machine exerts a steady controlled soothing pressure on her body without overwhelming her nervous system
• How her autism has heightened her ability to visualize which allows her to see things from an animal's point of view

If you're looking for an article that not only presents some interesting technical details about a part of the world you never thought about (and probably won't again) but also describes a very interesting person … I highly recommend this article.