Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy

by Matthew Scully

Book Overview

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."--Genesis 1:24-26

In this crucial passage from the Old Testament, God grants mankind power over animals. But with this privilege comes the grave responsibility to respect life, to treat animals...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312319738
• ISBN13: 9780312319731
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy

I had been avoiding reading Matthew Scully's Dominion for months. Avoiding it because I knew it would enrage, upset and embarrass me. And once I did pick up the book and commit to reading it, my predictions were dead on. This powerful, emotionally draining and gut-wrenching book about the systematic abuse and widespread slaughter of animals enraged me as a compassionate person, upset me as a lover of animals, and embarrassed me as a human being who has blindly taken part in the chain of abuse. Scully, a former Special Assistant and speech writer to President George W. Bush, surprises me first and foremost in that his background as a Republican is not something I would immediately associate with animal rights. Yet he clearly feels deeply about the subject, and that comes through loud and clear in this intricately detailed, impassioned examination of the ways we humans have abused our guardianship position and made animals into virtual slaves of our own needs, desires, passions and greed. From the horrors of factory farming, where massive numbers of cows, sheep, pigs and veal calves are treated like machines to produce our food, to the disgusting antics of the wealthy hunters who pay tens of thousands of dollars to kill exotic wildlife, to the brutal slaughter of seal pups, lab animals, precious and rare elephants, and whales (called "living marine resources" by the men who clamor for more lethal means to kill them with), this book leaves no stone unturned in its unflinching look at the myriad ways humans mistreat other life forms. Scully also spends a lot of time countering the ridiculous arguments of religious leaders, scientists and even sportsmen that animals do not feel pain, have no souls, and therefore are ours to do with as we please. Scully takes us into whaling commission meetings, hog farms, science labs and canned hunts, and into the minds of the men who get their kicks - and even their paychecks - from brutalizing other living things. We listen to the reasoning and excuses of people who think animals are find to torture and kill because they don't think like us, talk like us, or feel like us. We hear the excuses, the arguments and even the motivations of those who engage in the suffering of animals for prosperity, knowledge, thrills and cheap hamburgers. Eventually, the book leads us to the conclusion that we as a species have utterly failed our fellow creatures in every way. That we have been given a sense of dominion over the beasts of air and sea and earth seems to have given way to a righteous attitude of ownership, whereby we kill millions of animals each year for our own consumption, pleasure and control. Dominion is not a book written by some animal rights wacko. It is written by a respected journalist and former literary editor of National Review, and a man who has worked under some of the most powerful Republican leaders. It is written with respect and restraint, honesty and directness, and a deep compassion for the creat

Heart breaker

This book is a heart breaker but in a liberating way. Mathew Scully, thank you for your courage and fearlessness but very importantly thank you for your eloquence. Knowing something of your background as a senior speach writer for President Bush, it is quite impressive that you have bravely followed your heart and worked so hard to write a book that exposes the common- place cruelty and violence leveled against non-human animals daily in our society. In argueing for the rights for animals many animal rights activists focus on human health or the how a vegetarian diet will help the environment. These are good focuses. But Scully has appealed to our consciousness and morality. He himself has come to his conclusions that animals should not be treated as garbage because he has dared to challange his own callousness and vowed to feel from his heart. He has gone deeply into the depth of his own heart which is really the greater heart that we all share, but because of social conditioning most of us have become estranged from. Thank you Mathew Scully, for sharing the opening of your own heart with all of us, may we be the better for it and may we be inspired to extend our innate kindness to ALL others. May the lives of many animals be inmproved due to your efforts. This book is groundbreaking and life changing.

Dominion - A Powerful Pen Decries the Suffering of Animals

Matthew Scully has written a beautiful book in which he bases his argument for animal protection not on rights, liberation, or ethics, but on mercy. He tells us, "We are called to treat them with kindness, not because they have rights or power or some claim to equality, but in a sense because they don't; because they all stand unequal and powerless before us. Animals are so easily overlooked, their interests so easily brushed aside. Whenever we humans enter the world, from our farms, to the local animal shelter to the African savanna, we enter as lords of the earth bearing strange powers of terror and mercy alike."His argument is compelling.Scully takes us into the world of Safari Club where his disgust is apparent to us and likely to be shared by all decent people reading his description. He includes a chapter on the impotent, sad, joke that is the International Whaling Commission. His chapter on factory farming and slaughterhouses is no less hard-hitting; he describes a state of the art farm where he found sows wounded, sickly, and some dead, housed in tiny gestation crates, unable to move. He writes about slaughterhouses where production speeds make the stunning of all animals impossible to achieve; the result is that many animals, every day, are hacked up or dropped into scalding water kicking and screaming.Though other areas of abuse may not receive whole chapters, most get some attention. We read about a horrifying mass dolphin slaughter and learn that a few animals, rather than being killed, are allowed "to live out their days at a place called Izumito Sea Paradise, delighting crowds with their tricks and play." We are told that baby elephants used in circuses and other exotic animals found in the pet trade are acquired in a similar fashion. We read about the sad lives of circus elephants and learn that Ringling Brothers' is supporting efforts to lift the ban on ivory sales. There is a terrific section on the excesses of and inexcusable cruelties visited upon animals in biomedical research.Other issues are covered briefly: Scully mentions that many zoos sell sick or elderly animals to hunting ranches. He refers to bear bile farming, discusses bow hunting, and he offers some caustic comment on fur as fashion.Now I share my disappointments:Though Scully's arguments for vegetarianism are strong, he writes off veganism with "Using animals for milk and wool and the like is perfectly acceptable provided they and their young are treated humanely, as they are on smaller farms." (P. 28.)Perhaps Scully, like many vegetarians, has failed to notice that the fate of the dairy cow is the same as the fate of the beef cow or steer, regardless of the size of the farm; approximately eighty percent of hamburger meat in the US comes from dairy cows. And the life of a dairy cow includes much suffering regardless of the size of the farm. Scully quotes Temple Grandin: "When cows are weaned, both the cows and calves bellow for about twenty-four hours." (p. 245.)S

Human beings should not rationalize away their cruelty

Matthew Scully's Dominion is not to be quickly perused and immediately forgotten. I have already read this seminal work from cover to cover--and take it for granted that I must reacquaint myself with its powerful arguments at least every other month. Scully is definitely not your typical bleeding heart Liberal. On the contrary, the author's conservative credentials are solidly established. He has served as both a speech writer for President George W. Bush and contributing editor to the National Review. Scully's vegetarianism, however, places him in an awkward predicament within this cultural milieu. Even neo-conservative animal lovers such as myself have no intention whatsoever in ceasing to eat meat. He knows this to be the case but hopes to persuade us to alleviate the suffering of these animals as much as possible. Perhaps more troubling is the moral dilemma of animals enduring pain and death in medical research projects. Where should we draw the line? Moreover, must an animal suffer merely to assist humankind in the development of a better shampoo or other beauty products? Matthew Scully fortunately is not in the same camp as the secularist philosopher, Peter Singer. Animals are not equal to us. The theistic contention that humans have dominion over the animal kingdom is also the author's position. They lack our intelligence and therefore find themselves unable to sufficiently thwart our will. Yet, isn't this a reason why we should go out of our way to be kind to these mostly helpless creatures? Why do so many religious adherents seem so indifferent to the unnecessary harm caused to these sentient members of the animal kingdom? Have many people loyal to the wisdom of the Old Testament misunderstood God's will in this matter? Did God supposedly give us the right to treat animals as mere commodity products? Scully does not hesitate to take to task those conservatives who refuse to honestly confront the issue of animal cruelty. Many of these folks cowardly hide behind sarcasm and viscous ridicule instead of seriously discussing these issues. And yes, Dominion deserves five stars. This book should be read and discussed by everyone claiming to be just and humane. The radical Liberals have for far too long monopolized this debate. It's time for other conservative thinkers to join Matthew Scully and begin thinking hard and long regarding our treatment of those lesser creatures who share the planet with us.