The Emotional Lives of Animals and Children: Insights from a Farm Sanctuary by William Crain

Abstract

 2014 Children, Youth and Environments Children, Youth and Environments 24(3), 2014 The Emotional Lives of Animals and Children: Insights from a Farm Sanctuary William Crain (2014). San Francisco, CA: Turning Stone Press, 137 pages. $15.95; ISBN 978-1-61852-082-1. In 2008, William Crain, a professor of psychology at City University of New York and author of a popular child development textbook, bought “a broken-down farm with a few acres of pasture in lower Duchess County, New York” (xvi) and turned it into Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary. This place provides a home for over 70 rescued farm animals that escaped factory farms and slaughterhouses and found their way (or were brought) to the Sanctuary. Crain recounts how he gradually became committed to animal welfare, as well as vegetarianism, and together with his wife Ellen, a pediatrician, devoted themselves to the Farm Sanctuary. At the same time, Crain, as a professor of psychology, wanted to study animals’ natural behavior. He thought that observing these farm animals could illuminate aspects of children’s development as well. Thus, Crain and his wife became participant observers in the lives of chickens, goats, sheep and other farm animals, as well as the humans who came to the farm. In Part I of this book, Crain addresses the emotions that he has observed in the rescued farm animals under his care. His concept of emotion is unusually broad; it includes not only fear, but play, freedom, care, spirituality, and resilience. In each chapter, he draws parallels between the emotions observed in farm animals and those of children, underscoring the commonalities across species. For example, he recounts how some animals and children fall silent for extended periods after a trauma and only begin to vocalize when they feel safe. Crain is sensitive to distinctions between child and animal behavior, and finds in the animal example useful lessons for enhancing child development. For example, he contrasts the “watchful waiting” of mother goats who are content to stay on the sidelines as their baby goats scamper and play, with the “helicopter parenting” of many contemporary humans. Crain argues that uninhibited free play is innate and adaptive across most mammalian species. Hence, humans would do well to emulate these mother goats. When Crain discusses the need for freedom, he wrestles the urge to grant his rescued flock maximum freedom against the very real dangers to those animals (from foxes, for example) if he were to do so. Similarly, he argues, one must find the right balance between freedom and safety for human children. Book Review: The Emotional Lives of Animals and Children: Insights… 250 In elaborating this theme of the commonalities between these farm animals and children, Crain can, on occasion, stretch the parallels. For example, he argues that just as humans, including children, derive a sense of calm, awe and serenity—what Crain calls “spirituality”—from gazing at landscapes, some animals also gaze out at nature with what seem to be similar feelings. This cannot be ruled out; however, there is no empirical evidence to support such a claim. Moreover, landscapes may evoke many different emotions, not all of them linked to spirituality. Even the same landscape may be at times threatening, as during a storm, or welcoming, as in a bright, temperate day. However, this caution aside, the major point Crain is emphasizing is well worth considering. Humans are animals after all, and share much with other species. We can learn a great deal about children by observing the natural behavior of other animals. In Part II, Crain draws from his observations to urge that we help children build a more connected, inclusive and egalitarian relationship with animals. In his view, applying a sharp hierarchy that places humans above animals and viewing animals from a utilitarian perspective have many damaging effects on children as well as animals. By according animals greater status and respect, viewing them as having intrinsic worth, children will become more connected to the natural world and will not lose their ethical stance toward animals. Crain concludes that society needs a more inclusive value system, one that includes animals as well as humans. Where might that more inclusive value system come...