In Making Animals Happy, author Temple Grandin gives unparalleled insight into the inner workings of the animal mind. Grandin, who suffers from autism, has the ability to understand how animals experience their environment in a way that most people can’t but while reading her book each revolutionary comment made me question ‘why didn’t I think of that? It’s SO obvious!’. Making Animals Happy really is just common sense – so common, you never really thought about it before.

Throughout the book, Grandin discusses the huge significance of animals’ core emotions, which are brought to life through science, anecdote and industry examples. A whole range of animals are discussed from our much loved family pets, to our openly ignored food animals and beyond but in every chapter Grandin ceaselessly highlights the importance of not only reducing animals’ negative emotions, but increasing their experience of positive emotions.

Grandin, who designs industrial feedlots and slaughterhouses in the US, discusses farming practice with the knowledge and understanding that only someone working in the field could. Her descriptions are, on occasion, chilling. The combination of matter-of-fact descriptions of typical farming procedures, paired with the deep understanding of the emotions being experienced by the animals involved can be rather sobering.

Making Animals Happy is a fantastically accessible book that doesn’t have to be read cover to cover. Once you have read the opening chapter, you can dip in and out in any order you like. Making Animals Happy really is an essential read for anyone that cares about the welfare of animals and is a great book for anyone who wants to get a deeper understanding of the emotions of their family pets and other animals.

by Pru Elliott