Temple Grandin, noted author of “Animals in Translation,” agreed to do an interview with The Her­ald after a recent visit to Vermont to speak at the Vermont Grazing & Livestock Conference. Jenn Colby of Howling Wolf Farm helped ar­range the interview.

Grandin has played an instrumen­tal role in developing humane han­dling practices for slaughterhouses, but I was particularly interested to hear her views on how to interact with working animals on a daily ba­sis.

How do you connect with and un­derstand animals?

I’m a visual thinker, which helps me understand animals. Animals think in pictures, sound sensations, touch sensations. It’s a sensory- based world.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on humane handling practices for rais­ing animals.

You need to keep animals calm, keep them from getting fear memo­ries. You need to make sure their first experience of something new is a good experience, like if you’re bringing them into a new corral, let them eat in that corral before doing anything else.

Temple Grandin, author of “Animals in Translation,” gets comfortable with five beef cows. (Provided) Tell me more about fear memories.

Bad treatment leads to fear memories. When animals get a fear memory, they associate it with something they were looking at or hearing when the bad thing hap­pened. They might associate the sound of a diesel engine with the fear memory, but not the sound of a gasoline engine.

Is it possible to undo fear memo­ries?

You can work on undoing fear memories, but it’s difficult. The more high strung the animal, the harder it is to undo the fear memo­ries. You can desensitize an animal to the fear by gradually introducing the thing they are afraid of and do­ing positive things while the fear association is being seen or heard, but it’s very difficult to totally undo a fear memory. It’s best not to get them in the first place.

So the way you interact with ani­mals since birth is really important.

It’s important to be real calm with animals since birth. Animals do have to learn some manners. They can’t be pushing on you. If you’re petting a cow and she starts to push on you, you need to stop petting her right then, because they’re big ani­mals and they could hurt you.

So, they need to know that you have boundaries too?

That’s right.

What about working with milking animals?

On dairy farms, where the cows are tame and not afraid of peo­ple they’ll be more productive. If they’re afraid, they’re going to give less milk. A lot of people intuitively understand that, but some don’t. No yelling and screaming or sud­den jerky motions when milking. Some people have a really calm de­meanor that tends to calm animals down. It’s important to be really calm when milking.

What do you think of the idea of playing music in the milking parlor?

That can be okay, but if you play music, don’t play it too loud. Don’t play something like heavy metal.

What differences do you see in breeds of animals?

Some animals are more flighty and get upset more easily than oth­ers. It can depend on the breed.

Horses are more flighty than cat­tle, but there are a lot of individual differences between horses. Some animals get scared more easily than others.

What’s the best way to respond to a scared animal?

Let a scared animal sit for 20-30 minutes to calm back down. They need at least that long to get calm again.

What is important to help animals stay calm in a slaughterhouse set­ting?

Animals are afraid of a lot of things that we tend not to notice – a chain hanging down, a fan, a per­son walking by, a car passing by. You have to get rid of those things and then the animals will walk right up the chute. You have to get rid of distractions that can cause fear. For example, reflections or if it’s too dark. Animals don’t like to go into the dark. Don’t take animals to the slaughterhouse alone. Herd animals do not like being alone, un­less they’re reared alone and they’re used to being alone. Cattle can get very agitated when they’re by them­selves.

What else would you like to add?

People are realizing that good handling pays. People are getting more aware of the importance of that. That’s a good thing. We need to work on preventing behavior prob­lems. People need to understand the flight zone principles – where you position yourself when you move the animals. Some very tame animals have no flight zone – you can walk right up to them.

Can you explain what a flight zone is?

A flight zone is if you have an animal who is not tame and you get within 20 feet and it moves

Others move away after five feet. You don’t want animals to run away from you. They should want to come in to get milked. The thing you have to think about when work­ing with animals is that they are sen­sory based thinkers.

If you have information that you would like to share about local food or agriculture, please contact Josey at joseyhastings@gmail.com.