Labeled Autistic

Emergence: Labeled Autistic by Temple Grandin and Margaret M. Scariano
1996
Weight: 6 oz
Method of Disposal: Leaving in a public place or giving it to you if you are willing to ask for it



This year I had the chance to see Temple Grandin speak at a training conference and, as expected, she was amazing. A whole chain of events has led me to Temple Grandin and to my extreme respect for her, though I did not recognize it for years. I never remembered author’s names before I attended college and now I remember authors before titles. Because of this, when I bought and read Emergence over a decade ago I did not think about it again when I picked up another one of Grandin’s books. The other book I put on a shelf and did not get around to reading for a couple years. One year, for my birthday, my brother bought me her book on understanding animal emotions. I had trouble with the writing style, but I got through it and was impressed with the information. I bought another book of hers about animals.

Eventually, I would see the movie on the recommendation of a friend. It helped me give a voice to the words I had been reading, and I couldn’t stop myself. I talked about her all the time, re-read her books, bought new ones, named two dogs at the shelter Temple and Grandin, and eventually was able to see her in person because of the helpfulness of a complete stranger that I met when we brought some PAWS dogs to a training facility. Everything just fell into place and, the next thing I know, I have a hotel room over 30 floors up and a very expensive name tag that can get me into the right building. Who cared that my name was Jennifer, and I came from out of state?

I just re-discovered this book a week ago. I saw it on the shelf, remembered reading it, but had never made the connection. The cover is so dramatic and has since changed. It has a scratched up photo of a girl looking sad, font that is meant to look like scratchy handwriting, the words “a true story” posted over the title, and “She lived in a world like no other…” on the back. It is absurd. It has since been updated to feature a girl in a thin dress jumping on green grass. It is much less bleak, and the transformation cracks me up.

I recommend that every one read the work of Temple Grandin and watch her movie. She is amazing. You will learn a lot about animals and about autism. If someone does not ask me for this book I will not know what to think. You are really missing out. There will be more coming too. I just haven’t been able to bring myself to part with them.

The other thing you will glean from Grandin’s biography is the strength and affection of her mother, who I also admire very much. Grandin was not always well-behaved, but she was always smart. That can be a difficult mix for some people, but her mother reveled in the challenge and always supported and loved her daughter, who truly was unique and world-changing. Just read her stuff! I don’t know how to relay all the information to you.

Greed and Neglect

(This picture shows Bogey, a dog with an embedded collar, who was later adopted into a great home with people who love him very much)

Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed. Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry by Gail A. Eisnitz
1997
Weight: 1.3 lbs
Method of Disposal: Selling, unless you want it

I read this book at least 4 years into my vegetarian-ism, so I cannot claim that it changed me. It did, however, mean a lot to me. I found myself crying several times while reading this. It is impossible to examine the current U.S. meat industry without feeling horrified. We modify animals to die young and fat in small cages so that we can make the most profit off the meat available. This book shows how it is unhealthy for, not only the animals, but also for us. There is a large chunk of the book dedicated to children dying from eating beef and getting salmonella.

I have to believe that the majority of people I know would not be able to bring themselves to consume the meat they ingest if they were confronted, daily, with the abuse that these animals suffer. It is not enough to see a documentary or read a snippet about it in the daily paper. We are exposed to so much cruelty every day that it becomes almost normal, but if we had to face it head-on we could not bear it.

Animals have been so distanced from our compassion. We are raised, young, to believe that animals are something separate from us. We are trained to be able to kill them at will for our own personal benefit—only most of us are not ever actually faced with taking their lives. It is not surprising, then, that this book had to cover the human detriments of factory farms, as well as the animals. I appreciated that information because it gave me extra ammunition, but the truth is, that it should be enough to know that we are torturing living beings. That should stop us from this cruelty, but it doesn’t.

Eisnitz reminds us that, “one hamburger containing meat from as many as one hundred different animals, one infected animal can cross-contaminate sixteen tons of beef (159).” She then leads us into a discussion about how meat was not so dangerous decades ago. You could eat it rare far more readily without the risk of e coli or salmonella. She exposes the reasons why people might hide what occurs in meat houses, and she does not shy away from the mistreatment of workers. This book shows us several reasons why we should become more humane with our eating habits, and it also brings to life how little we have come along since The Jungle was published. I, personally, recommend that everyone read anything and everything they can get their hands on about the meat industry. Even if you do not decide to become vegetarian, you will consider fighting for change within the meat industry. We are killing people but, on a larger scale, we are forcing living creatures to endure incredible amounts of torture for the short time they are alive for our simplistic pleasures. There is a better way.