To understand animal thinking you've got to get away from a language.

In the 50s and 60s, kids were taught how to shake hands. They were taught how to have manners. There needs to be a lot more of that kind of stuff because the autistic mind doesn't pick up social things and subtle cues.

People talk about curing autism. But if you got rid of all those traits, who's going to make the next computer?

We owe them [animals] a decent life and a decent death, and their lives should be as low-stress as possible. That's my job. I wish animals could have more than just a low-stress life and a quick, painless death. I wish animals could have a good life, too, with something useful to do. People were animals, too, once, and when we turned into human beings we gave something up. Being close to animals brings some of it back.

The squeeze machine is not going to cure anybody, but it may help them relax; and a relaxed person will usually have better behavior.

All animals and people have the same core emotion systems in the brain.

Research has shown that a barren environment is much more damaging to baby animals than it is to adult animals. It does not hurt the adult animals the same way it damages babies.