If Singer's Animal Liberation is animal rights for the brain, Dominion is animal rights (shorthand for moral consideration) for the soul. Scully is an amazing writer. Sensuous, poetic, poignant, caustic and brutal. The greatest cruelty that humans have been inflicting on Earth is done onto their lower, forgotten brethren. It's not Shakespeare, it's not Lord Byron, and yet he has a way of illustrating the same poetic suffering non-effaced by the truth.

It's all true! Hauntingly and depressingly true! This is a reality, a reality most people choose to ignore. It's not a coincidence that this guy made Palin and W. Bush presentable on the world's stage.

Review originally published on Flayrah.

Matthew Scully is an unusual proponent of animal rights, coming from the Christian-favoured, U.S. Republican party. Indeed, he speaks about people automatically assuming he is on the side of hunters and pig 'farmers' when, in fact, he has been a vegetarian for over 30 years.

While Scully does support animal rights, he makes that stand from a generally religious perspective, arguing that current treatment of animals is an abuse of god-given dominion, and disagreeing with the secular reasoning of animal rights proponents like Peter Singer.

Scully's ability is shown when coming to the main thrust of his book, where he writes about animals, how they are treated and how they should be treated. He is an excellent writer (a former speechwriter for then-president George W. Bush), and a dutiful investigator, travelling to most of the places about which he writes.

These places are a trip to some of the darkest places in our moral landscape, beginning at Safari Club International, an organisation of hunters given tax-free status, through an international whaling convention in Australia, and back to the USA. He travels inside the horrific world of intensive pig farming, where pigs may never feel mud or straw, be permanently immobile in a cage, go untreated for tumours or broken limbs as long as they are fertile, and where some are killed by immersion in boiling water – still fully conscious.

When Scully speaks of religious reasons to protect animals, he loses a lot of his flair. This also happens in his later attempt to ground animal rights in the antiquated idea of natural law, avoiding secular philosophy. It is perhaps his lowest point, as it amounts to little more than the fallacious appeal to tradition, and it comes near the end of the book, after his early foray in theology has been thankfully forgotten.

That doesn't mean that Scully is uncritical of religion. He complains specifically about the Catholic church's doctrines being too fuzzy on animal issues, leaving them open to interpretation in almost any manner. His views were obviously not taken to heart, as theologian William Lane Craig still has no problem declaring:

Thus, amazingly, even though animals may experience pain, they are not aware of being in pain. God in His mercy has apparently spared animals the awareness of pain. This is a tremendous comfort to us pet owners. For even though your dog or cat may be in pain, it really isn't aware of it and so doesn't suffer as you would if you were in pain.

Along the way, Scully has some more-intellectual asides. At one point he touches on animal consciousness, and points out the myriad flaws in the reasoning of those who claim there is none. He spends a fair amount of time criticising Peter Singer (who ironically gives the book a good review), mainly from the position that Singer's controversial views on other topics – infanticide and euthanasia for example – turn off the majority of people from animal rights. However he never commits to religious reasons either, and seems to wobble back and forth without coming to solid conclusions, wanting to reduce animal suffering but unwilling to draw a line beyond which things become impermissible.

Despite his lack of a serious ethical foundation, Scully is more than capable of getting his message across, even if he often resorts to emotional appeals. The questions he asks – such as whether you believe the ease or taste of meat outweighs the suffering of the animals that provide it; whether you are willing to treat animals as mere commodities to be bought and sold; and why you would eat a pig, a cow or a chicken, but not a cat, a dog or a whale – should be seriously considered by anyone who has anything to do with animals.

In an interview about the book, Scully said something that expresses why this book is worth reading for anyone who cares:

It's also worth recalling that people can agree on the same objectives for different reasons: A secular philosopher like Peter Singer can oppose factory farming because it's unethical by his theories of justice. An environmentalist can oppose factory farming because it's reckless stewardship. A conservative can oppose factory farming because it is destructive to small farmers and to the decent ethic of husbandry those farmers live by. A religious person can oppose factory farming because it is degrading to both man and animal — an offense to God. The point is to end the cruelty. And we shouldn't let secondary differences interfere with primary obligations.

While I do disagree with a number of minor points, I find myself horrified by his findings and fully supportive of his conclusions. Indeed, after reading n  Dominionn, I was forced to become a vegetarian in order to maintain any semblance of philosophical consistency.

I think this may end up being one of my all-time favorite books. This man writes beautifully, and says all the things I feel about animals, but am too inarticulate to express on my own. I initially bought the book because I heard it was written from a Christian perspective, and that the author is conservative -- and I wanted to expose myself to a perspective that would appeal to Christians that I might encounter in conversations about animal welfare. But (a) he doesn't push the religion stuff a lot (he admits he's not terribly devout), and (b) the religious stuff he did bring in made me want to become a big ol' Christian myself. Or at least, it reminded me of the beautiful parts of Christianity, which I tend to forget most of the time. Religious elements aside, though, the whole book is extremely well written. The author seems super smart, and he addresses all the criticisms directed at animal welfare activists with reason, and sense, and sometimes a bit of sass. In fact, this book kind of majorly kicks ass -- in an erudite and restrained kind of way. I actually feel grateful that he wrote it.

I loved this book! It was a great new perspective of why we should be merciful to animals. The typical animal rights book is usually very extreme. Matthew Scully takes the idea of animal welfare adn explains it in ways that any right wing homocentric conservative could understand and come to agree with. Scully explores trophy hunting, slaughter, the emotional/intelligent lives of animals and a few other topics and explains from a Christian perspective why we should repect them for what they are and protect them from our own excess. This is not a typical "animal rights" book. This is more of an animal welfare book I would say. All of the arguements are logical and well thought out. Emotion adn extremism are at a minimum. I think everyone should read this book regardless of which perpective you take, the rightist, the wefarist or the "they were put here for us" crowd.

The message of this book—compassion toward animals—is old, but its approach is not. Using philosophy and first-person observation, Scully traces some of the most extreme cruelties man inflicts on his fellow beings—safari hunting, whaling, and factory farming—to confront us with how man has interpreted his “dominion.” Interestingly, Scully’s argument does not depend on animals having rights, instead acknowledging at every turn how dependent they are upon our good will. "Animals are more than ever a test of our character ... 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,” he writes. An eloquent plea for the exercise of mercy over things that creepeth.

Couldn’t get through it. The point being made is no doubt logical and religious driven - however, it is so intense to read this book that I just get lost in the paragraphs. Will attempt to finish the second half in the future. For now, 2 stars.

Unless you're psychopathic or one of those benighted nuts who thinks homo sapiens is the only species with emotions, a sense of self, and the right of its members to live their lives without fear of molestation, I defy you to read this book and continue to buy as food the flesh of animals subjected to the obscenities of our modern food-processing industry.
And this appeal to sanity is but one of the "calls to mercy" Scully explores in this splash-of-cold-water-to-the-face of a book. Depending where you stand on the respect in which Mother Nature by definition holds all of her creations, Dominion will either shame or validate you-- and hopefully wake up at least a few of those arrogant, ignorant souls afflicted with the former.

one of the best books about animal rights i've ever read. distinguishes itself from the countless others by the quality of its prose. wonderfully written, with a very clear sensitivity for these issues on the author's part.

This is definitely one of the best books I've read. It's very eye-opening, and I recommend it to anyone who cares about or eats animals.

Really enjoyed this book. If you want your heart to be opened towards animals (vegetarian or not) then I would definitely recommend.

There is of course an ever larger choice in books on animal rights. This is a very good one. Regarding the content: the title says it all. What makes this book special, besides how well it is written and argued, is that the writer is a conservative and a christian. The animals can use a lot more help from those circles, so thank you Matthew Scully!

Starts with a Bang, Ends with a Whimper

As "Dominion" is the first animal welfare/animal rights book written by a Republican, I was driven to read it out of curiosity. In it, Scully lays out a compelling argument against animal exploitation; yet, he seems to backtrack in his final chapters, diluting his thesis and offering excuses for those who would rather make superficial changes.

Rather than just hurling statistics at the reader (as some animal rights books seem to do), Scully attempts to illustrate several instances of animal exploitation with personal narratives. In order to explain the absurdity of hunting - particularly big game hunting - Scully attends the 1999 convention of the Safari Club International; he details the folly of the world's wildlife management philosophy from his seat at the 2000 meeting of the International Whaling Commission; and he offers a firsthand look at the horrors of modern factory farms, along with the callousness and disregard of those who are responsible. While Scully does manage to interweave his accounts with facts, figures, and philosophy, the book is far from dry. Instead, "Dominion" reads more like a novel, and a terrifying one at that: much of what Scully asserts will sicken you.

Throughout the first 350 pages of "Dominion", Scully lays out a cogent argument for animal rights, without ever using the term "animal rights". Thus, the reader is left wondering whether Scully is an animal rights advocate or an animal welfarist (and yes, there's a world of difference between the two!). In this manner, he never fully articulates his beliefs. He also dismisses philosophical arguments for animal rights/welfare in favor of religion - at best, a silly idea. While I understand that the book is aimed largely at Christians, it's still pure folly to cast off all semblance of logic in the name of religion. The animal rights movement is incredibly diverse, and the different types arguments reflect this. Appealing to one's sense of mercy (hence the book's subtitle, "The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy") may convince certain segments of society to repent their animal-exploiting ways, but other people may require different routes of persuasion, logic included. Not to mention, the animal rights (and even welfare, to a lesser extent) movement is commonly accused of being devoid of logic and riddled with sentimentality - Scully's advice certainly wouldn't help correct this stereotype.

Despite these flaws, I was still impressed with "Dominion" - until I got to the final chapter. Though Scully seems unequivocal in his condemnation of meat-eating (as it's cruel, unnecessary, and harmful to the environment), in the end he merely calls for more humane standards. I'm sorry, but killing is in and of itself inhumane - when it comes to killing for food or fun, there's no such thing as a humane death. For humans, meat's pure lack of necessity negates humaneness. Though I am myself a vegan, I'm not even quibbling over the merits of vegetarianism vs. veganism here - Scully makes a great case for going veg, and then offers a "get out of jail free" card for those who would rather keep on eating meat - never mind the dairy. There's no such thing as "human decency" when needlessly killing (not to mention torturing) billions of animals a year because of preferences, convenience or tradition.

Some reviewers have expressed their satisfaction that "Dominion" isn't just another radical, zealous, foaming-at-the-mouth animal rights book. Well, it isn't - but that's because it isn't an animal rights book at all. For whatever reason, Scully chose the easy way out after setting forth an impassioned argument in favor of animal rights. He set the stage for a call to end all forms of animal exploitation - but in the end, he merely called for greater regulation. It was quite disappointing, since I was at first under the impression that we finally had an ally on the right.

Despite Scully's moral schizophrenia, I still enjoyed the bulk of the book, which is why I gave it more than the 1 star I would have otherwise. Nonetheless, "Dominion" started with an impressive bang, and ended with a self-serving, compliant little whimper.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2008/05/05/...