Temple Grandin didn’t speak until she was three years old. When she was diagnosed with autism in 1950, her mother engaged Grandin in activities such as speech therapy and games to stimulate her mind.
Today, Grandin is a leading animal science expert and an icon for individuals with autism. Last night she visited the University to present the lecture “My Experience with Autism and Animals.”
During the two-and-a-half hour program, Grandin spoke about a variety of subjects, ranging from her experiences with autism to human slaughter methods, and drew a sizeable crowd. Attendees filled Lillis 282, which has more than 300 seats, as well as five overflow in rooms and lecture halls where live footage was shown.
“Next time we bring Dr. Grandin here, we’ll book the ballroom, and then we’ll get Autzen,” joked Barbara Altmann, director of the Oregon Humanities Center.
Grandin is considered a role model because of the challenges she has overcome and how much she has accomplished. Despite her diagnoses, she went on to earn her doctorate in animal sciences and write several books, and is now a professor at Colorado State University.
Grandin’s visit to the University coincided with the release of HBO’s biographical film “Temple Grandin,” which stars Claire Danes as Grandin.
“She’s an incredible actress,” Grandin said. “It’s almost like she became me.”
Grandin said her autism helps her relate better to animals because they are sensory thinkers like she is, and her mind works primarily through images as opposed to words.
“My mind works just like Google for images,” Grandin said. “Autism is a very complex disorder. It’s a continuum of traits.”
At 18 years old, Grandin invented a “hug machine,” or squeeze-box, which helped her relieve symptoms of autism, such as anxiety. Today she gets relief from anti-depressants and doing 100 sit-ups before going to sleep. Grandin has also been experimenting with gluten-free and low-carb diets.
Grandin, an advocate for humane slaughter, believes handlers are unnecessarily rough with animals. She said that in a few years the number of “downer” dairy cows has increased from five to 24 percent, largely due to the excessive use of electric prods and slippery floors in slaughter houses.
“All animals have a fear of falling,” Grandin said. “This could be easily fixed with non-slip floors.”
One study Grandin conducted found that animals didn’t panic on their way to the slaughterhouse if the passage was well-lit and fitted with non-slip flooring.   
Grandin also blames people for breeding animals to exhibit certain traits to an unhealthy degree, such as the exaggerated nasal passages of bulldogs and the unnaturally fast growth rate of chickens. One slide in her presentation stated, “If you over select for any single trait, you will ruin the animal.”
As part of her job, Grandin travels to slaughterhouses across the country to calculate how distressed the animals are by counting the number of times they fall, vocalize or run. If that number is too high, the slaughterhouse fails the test and must improve its conditions.
In her lecture, Grandin said animals had similar fears and emotions to humans, and she stressed the importance of having sympathy for them.
“Temple Grandin is more than the sum of her parts — autism, animal science, professor — she exemplifies the synergy of a truly human individual,” professor Mark Unno said.
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