An evening with Dr. Temple Grandin.
On Tuesday, May 30th the Moab Museum team had the opportunity to welcome Dr. Temple Grandin, an advocate for the humane treatment of livestock and distinguished professor at Colorado State University (CSU) Fort Collins, to Southeast Utah.
Dr. Temple Grandin is a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. Facilities Grandin has designed for handling livestock are used by many companies around the world. She has also been instrumental in implementing animal welfare auditing programs that are used by McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Whole Foods, and other corporations. Grandin has appeared on numerous TV shows such as 20/20 and Prime Time. Her books include: Thinking in Pictures, Livestock Handling and Transport, and The Autistic Brain. Her books Animals in Translation and Visual Thinking have been on the New York Times Bestseller List. Grandin was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in September 2017 and in 2022 was named a Colorado State University Distinguished Professor.
Throughout the day, our team traveled down to the Canyonlands Research Center at Dugout Ranch to discuss ranching in the area with Heidi, Matt, and Kristen Redd and their participation in New Mexico State University’s The Jornada Experimental Range’s Criollo Cattle Project at The Nature Conservancy’s Dugout Ranch, Canyonlands Research Center, and the US Geological Survey. Dr. Grandin lent an informed and nuanced perspective to the Criollo Cattle Project following the Livestock Conservancy’s International Heritage Breeds Week celebrated and recognized at the Moab Museum.
A tour at the Moab Museum followed our time at Indian Creek, and Dr. Grandin’s presentation at historic Star Hall “Not All Great Minds Are The Same.” Dr. Grandin spoke to her experience developing systems for the humane treatment of livestock, particularly cattle, and the lessons from this work and her life experience that became the basis for her latest book, published this past fall, “Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions.”
Special thanks to Dr. Grandin for her visit. Grandin dispensed incredible lessons to our staff, the graduate student researchers at the CRC at Dugout Ranch, and our broader community. We are grateful to cap off our programs on heritage breeds with Dr. Grandin’s visit.
Additional thanks to the Redd Family for their generosity and warm welcome down at Indian Creek.