Das Buch löst gemischte Empfindungen aus. Rein formell: nicht "ansprechend" gestaltet bzgl der Formatierung - als ob der Text stupide abgetippt und dann als Buch zusammengeklebt wurde.
Insbesondere am Beginn werden dieselben Beispiele / Beschreibungen auf zwei Seiten mehrfach wiederholt.
Das Buch hätte definitiv um einiges kürzer sein können und es hätte nichts Aussagekräftiges gefehlt.
Die persönliche Aussage, dass die Autorin selbst nicht auf Fleisch verzichten könne... Nun denn... Die Gründe führten zu einem Augenrollen....

Im Hinblick auf die wissenschaftlichen Aspekte ist es sehr gut formuliert - man muss kein Fachbuch dazupacken und für Einsteiger im Tiertraining sicherlich sinnvoll.

Man muss natürlich bedenken, wo die Autorin lebt - das jedoch in Ausnahmefällen zb ein Teletakt ("Stromhalsband") berechtigt sei und es mit der Dominanztheorie bei Hunden weitergeht (und beharrlich betont wird) ist eine absolute Katastrophe und passt nicht zu dem selbst-betonten Motiv des Buches, dass die Autorin helfen möchte, dass es Tieren besser ginge. Auch, dass sie sich selbst gegenüber einem Schwein schon wie ein Schwein verhalten musste um Respekt zu erhalten - zum Glück sind sowohl die Wissenschaft und auch das Tiertraining mittlerweile von einem solchen Quatsch (größtenteils) weit entfernt.

You know, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I read great swaths of it five years ago or more, enjoyed them immensely but never finished the book. It's been sitting on my to-read shelf forever and I finally picked it up to finish it. Oddly enough, I read Temple Grandin's Thinking in Pictures before finishing this book. Autism isn't an especially deep interest of mine, cognitive ehtology is. It's funny how life works.

Animals in Translation will likely forever be controversial. The idea that animals and autistic people have similar cognition is going to be controversial and politically charged regardless of who you are. Nevertheless, the observations that Temple Grandin makes are compelling and ultimately, not all that insulting. She's not comparing autistic people to animals in a negative way, instead she's stating that due to changes in brain chemistry and make up both perceive the world in a way that's different from normal functioning people. She then backs her statement up with personal experiences, observations, and what at that time were recent studies. I'd be interested to hear what she thinks of her hypothesis now, though I doubt much has changed in the intervening years.

She credits animals with being far more intelligent than we believe, simply intelligent in different ways. Is a dog's ability to predict a person's seizure before it happens a sign of intelligence? They are responding to signs too subtle for us to predict. What about a magpie pretending to have a broken wing to distract a predator? What about the way ravens and wolves interact? Or the migration patterns of birds? The social structure of horses? Did we domesticate wolves, or did they domesticate us? Did we learn music from birds or vice versa? Is music, ultimately, how animals communicate?

I found the book fascinating and a good starting point for anyone interested in animal thought and behavior. While it will likely forever remain controversial, as Temple Grandin rightly points out, this field is controversial to begin with. Very few people are willing to admit just how intelligent and emotional animals can be and give further ground to them in such a way. Humans want to remain special, and bit by bit these studies are making it more evident that humans, truthfully, aren't. I don't think many people want to deal with the ramifications of that.

I expected a little more from this book, after hearing about it constantly for several years in animal circles. When comparing thought processes and perception in animals and autistic people, Grandin provides some interesting insights in our dealings with animals. A good deal of this, however, is not as new or groundbreaking as she seems to feel it is, given anyone who has worked closely with animals for a time will come to the same realizations of what they see. When covering behavioral conepts in general, she tends not to distinguish between what are generally regarded as facts or hard theories, and what are individuals' hypotheses and pet theories. She simply chooses what she likes and presents it all as straight fact, which I find rather irritating and somewhat irresponsible coming from a PhD. Her anecdotes and examples are fascinating, but I'd suggest taking her renditions of them somewhat lightly and going to the original literature for more accurate accounts.

Where do I start? This book was delightful. I so enjoyed this look into Temple Grandin's life and her life's work. Though I don't think Grandin would ever describe life with Autism as easy, she's certainly not going to sit around and pity herself either. Grandin was key to her own autism therapy at a very young age, designing a "squeeze" apparatus modeled after a machine she saw on her aunt's cow farm that was designed to gently squeeze the cattle as a means of calming them. Grandin had rather interesting childhood and achieved a PhD. Her life's work is to ensure humane treatment of cattle that are designated for slaughter, and with only 10 simple rules, she has done wonders for the industry and the cows that feed us.

One of the comments on the back of the book stated that the reviewer was often unsure if this was a book about animals that used autism to help explain them or if it was a book about autism that used animals to help explain it. I feel as though I came away with a wealth of information about animals and about the hidden blessings that can be associated with autism. I loved this book and cannot recommend it highly enough

This book is so awesome, everyone should read it. Grandin talks about the ways that her autism gives her insight into animal behavior, while weaving in discussions of genetics, breeding practices, and stories about animals. She talks about horses, cows, cats, dogs, and chickens, really there's something for everyone. Grandin is responsible for the redesign of slaughterhouses to be a lot more humane (she talks about some of the contradictions in ethics this entails, but overall, it seems like a very good thing that most major meat packers are using her systems), a nice counterpart to some of the hype created by FAST FOOD NATION and the like. It's just start to finish fascinating.

I enjoyed this book. It made me understand my iguana so much better. I was so moved by this that I wrote Temple Grandin an email and received a nice email in return.

How wonderful! I can't believe it took me so long to get to this. I love her unique style, and the stories from her exceedingly unique life experience, but most of all her insights.

I feel a lot of commonality to what she describes, making me wonder (am I on the spectrum?). The answer is that I think we all are (the spectrum is long), and if we allow a type of awareness that's perhaps less socially cultivated and rewarded, we can easily recognize and respond to the truth and insight that she LIVES, every day, by default, in her state of being and thinking.

Far beyond telling us how animals are special, Temple Grandin's whole amazing life's work is telling us how special the viewpoint from autism is, and how human diversity is a gift to humanity.

This book truly is a must-read for any pet owner, and I highly recommend it to anyone who just loves animals. Temple Grandin offers fascinating insights to the animal world, which will confirm things long time pet owners always knew, and bring to light startling new information.

One main thing this book brings to light is to not underestimate animals or those with autism because often times they're smarter than us. Yet, that's one thing Grandin tries to avoid, saying things like animals are smarter or humans are smarter. Rather she just tries to point out that animals may do things differently but that doesn't mean they're stupid. It's all about skill level that certain creatures are better at than others.

This book never got boring, whereas many other "animal" books tend to get dry and scientific. Grandin, while delving into scientific facts, puts them into words the average person can understand, and most always will support every fact or theory with an example. Always there was some story to go along with everything she was telling the reader about, and every story was amusing and fascinating to read about.

Another thing this book was wonderful at was pointing out autistic characteristics in a way that's not so harsh or right in your face of "look at how similar they are!" It was gentle, casual, not making a big deal out of it. It's also divided into easy sections so if you want to skip something or find something specific you can.

I really enjoyed this book. I want to try to get my roommate with the puppy to read it because it will teach her things about her dog that I'm sure she never knew. This is a very good book to have at your side when training animals, or even planning on getting one. Even if you've had your current pet for a decade, still get this book, it may help you when Fluffy starts doing something completely off the wall.

324 pages of temple grandin degrading autistic people while being autistic ?

I very much enjoyed this book. I like Grandin's blunt straightforward style and greatly appreciate her basic respect for science mixed with a healthy questioning of science methods and conclusions. I particularly liked her use of lots and lots of examples - she does get carried away sometimes and gets off the point but the examples are always interesting and she always comes back to the point.

Grandin tries to explain how animals and humans are alike and how they are different and how we can better recognize animal perception and make life better for both of us. She traces her interest and love of animals to her own autism which she feels makes her think and perceive the world more like an animal does and gives her a bridge to understanding animal behavior. I loved her examples of working with meat and poultry industry to help make animal treatment more humane. Although I am not particularly fond of dogs, I have many friends with dogs and was fascinated by her examples of dog behavior and can see things she talked about in the behavior of dogs that I interact with.

This book could be used in high school or junior high as a great introduction to various sciences.

I have a number of conflicts with this book – which should in no way diminish the remarkable body of observations made by Dr Grandlin. It is generally accepted as cold hard fact that animals don’t think like humans. Until such time as there is scientifically verifiable information and understanding, we, as scientists, don’t know how humans *or* animals think. With ongoing study using functional MRI (fMRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning we are learning more about the workings of the brain in many species.[return][return]It is somewhat clearer and better understood that perceptual and cognitive processing in persons with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) and the general population can be quite different. There has been advancement in this field in the few years since the first edition of Animals in Translation was published and is not unreasonable to expect far greater understanding of the variety and depth of ASDs in the next few years.[return][return]As a behaviorist Dr Grandlin effectively uses her perceptual abilities which are rather outside the conventional ‘boxes’. That she has developed some methods of livestock management that might not have otherwise been implemented. There is no question that she observes things that can be applied to some animals very effectively, as the numerous anecdotal examples in the book illustrate. What is not clearly addressed is that techniques that are effective on large livestock do not apply to domestic pets, foul or other species. There are some presumptive statements regarding canine behavior a species which she admits having minimal experience with and the behavior she asserts is inconsistent with the experiences of dog handlers and trainers in a wide variety of disciplines; (Search & Rescue, Police and Security, Service Dogs of varying specialty).[return][return]What I hope many people bring away from this book is not the controversy of animal behavior, slaughterhouse and feedlot practices and whether or not a person eats meat, but that there are as many variations of perception and cognition as there are species. ASDs come in an enormously wide variety from people you would never recognize as having one to the stereotypical internally focused, non-verbal, rocking child. There can be huge value in thinking outside the norms, as Dr Grandlin and Bill Gates (with his publically acknowledged Asperger’s Syndrome).[return][return]Recognizing this and allowing for adaptations when some students are simply incapable of learning in ‘conventional’ ways will allow all of society to benefit from the advances these people can make, because it’s simply not comprehensible to them that something *can’t* be done just because it never was before. The potentials for humanity and the species we share the Earth with are indeed boundless, if only given the opportunity to function in a way that optimizes and celebrates them, rather than marginalizing and stereotyping.

A unique and fascinating book. Grandin makes a thesis that autistic people have a lot in common with animals in their way of processing information, thinking and experiencing pain and emotions. Well developed frontal lobes are characteristic of a normal human brain. They are also responsible for a global and coherent image of the world, and a generalized way of thinking. The outcome of healthy frontal lobes is more verbal expression and controlled behaviour (e.g. people have much more control over their emotions and fears than animals; they can filter them out, and animals can’t) Grandin claims that since both autistic people and animals have smaller or underdeveloped frontal lobes, they share characteristics connected to this fact. They perceive the world in a series of sensory strings : sounds and images which record an amazing number of details, but do not get immediately interconnected into a meaningful whole. They have a lot of problems generalizing information (e.g. when an autistic child learns to butter a toast, we cannot take it for granted that he or she has learned how to spread peanut butter on it as well) and filtering unnecessary details or distractions. They also have a big problem coping with fears and negative emotions.
Grandin also makes some revolutionary statements. She argues that animals have consciousness, and the fact that they don’t have the language to express it does not preclude that. She herself does not think in words. She also says that animals show certain behaviours that have been so far attributed to humans only. Animals, she says, can kill for a pleasure of killing and gives examples of violent male gangs of adolescent dolphins, killer whales and chimpanzees.
Animals can communicate and manipulate verbal language too, and the prairie dogs’ language is thought to be most advanced and is most comprehensively described.
On the whole, Grandin tries to argue, convincingly in my opinion, that animals are very close to humans in many ways. She herself is an avid advocate of animal rights, and is a consultant on safe and humanitarian slaughter houses for cattle.
Very impressive and recommended.