Snagging internationally renowned autistic activist and animal expert Temple Grandin to speak in New Westminster was a big deal for a Douglas College veterinary instructor.
Grandin has a three-year waitlist for speaking engagements, but Diane Boyle was able to pin down the sought-after American doctor of animal science to talk at the local campus.
"We're pretty excited," Boyle said, "she has a really different take on how animals think, and she equates it to the autistic brain: the attention to details, the different pathways, the very intense sensory experience."
Boyle managed to hook Grandin because the prominent expert was the keynote speaker at a Washington State conference the same weekend and was willing to come north for the Sept. 28 engagement.
The 350 tickets for the show sold out within hours of her talk being announced. The college is selling about 100 more tickets for an overflow room, Boyle explained. Grandin, a prolific author known for her trademark western wear, was the subject of a 2010 Emmy-winning HBO movie based on her unique life.
"Being autistic herself, she's shown what people living with that spectrum and living with autism can do. She has made more of an impact on world-wide animal welfare than most people can hope to in a lifetime," said Boyle, a veterinarian as well as a teacher, who discovered Grandin about 12 years ago, coming across a book of hers while travelling in San Francisco.
"I read it and thought 'Wow, this is neat,'" Boyle said. "I'm a veterinarian. I use the kind of thinking in my practice, and it's made an impact on the way I practice vet medicine."
Boyle saw Grandin speak at the world small animal vet congress in Vancouver in 2007 and again at UBC in 2011.
Grandin's talk at Douglas is on understanding behaviour in animals, including livestock and small animals. She also speaks about the use of slaughterhouses, Boyle said.
"She recognizes the reality that we are going to continue to have slaughterhouses, so her feeling is they should be as humane as they can be," Boyle said. "So her focus is how do we lessen fear in animals, how do we interpret our world for them. Her focus is more about them and what they see and how they feel, how she equates it to her own brain."
All proceeds will go to the Douglas Fund and the BCSPCA. For the overflow tickets, visit Eventbrite.ca.
