A wonderful, impassioned, conservative argument for the dignity of animals (and, indirectly, for vegetarianism, or at least for radically reducing our meat consumption). Scully thoughtfully engages with Peter Singer and other arguments about animal rights, but ultimately his argument is one about Christian compassion and about turning away from the cruelty which industrial meat production visits upon animals on a horrifying scale. A book I read for a class I'm preparing, and it was one of the best.

we ARE meant to treat animals with kindness, but not because they are powerless and unequal to humans as scully claims, but because they are equal and probably superior to us.

i was also jolted by his hypocritical anti veganism "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.)


the tragic end for dairy cows is the same as beef cows; 80% of meat comes from dairy cows. does scully ignore the screaming and wailing as millions of newborn calves are dragged from their mothers?

Although a bit tedious at times, Dominion is a series of powerful arguments against the assumption that man's cognitive superiority to animals is correlated with his ability to use them for any purpose he sees fit regardless of how it harms or causes them pain. One of the main assumptions that he challenges is whether or not animals have a "conscious," a hotly contested topic among intellectuals, many of whom think that without the ability to reason or speak, animals are functionally brain dead and, therefore, unworthy of any kind of efforts to spare them pain or suffering. Scully argues that, as humans, we have a greater responsibility to ensure that we aren't causing unnecessary suffering and, he goes on to argue, with limited boundaries and laws safeguarding animals, not much will change.

The fact that Scully was a former speechwriter for President Bush seems at odds with his strong belief in animal rights, but his Conservative background seems to inform his arguments, which reject sentimentality for logic and dispel the myth that all animal advocates are patchouli stinking drum circlers. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

But, as someone who has always instinctively winced at pictures of animals being tortured, farmed or experimented upon yet has trouble putting these principles into practice in my own life, it was nice to read something that wasn't all ultra-preachy, you'll burn in a fiery pit of hell condemnation kind of book.

One quote that stood out to me was Scully's observation that people can't morally justify caring about animals and people—there must always be a hierarchy:

Anything we give the creatures must be extra, the unwanted scrap from our moral table.

It took me a long time to finish this book, but not because of anything inherently wrong about the book or its merits. On the contrary, the heartbreaking commentary on the suffering of animals at the hands of our fellow world citizens, and the complicity that all of us have, in one form or another, in this awful state of being, is overwhelming and heart-wrenching. I could only take so much at one sitting. I shed more than a few tears as Matthew Scully outlined the travesties perpetrated on our factory farms, the poaching and killing of so many endangered creatures in the wild kingdoms of Africa, Asia, and elsewhere, the exploiting of marine mammals & other marine species to the point of near extinction, the horrific treatment of lab animals, cruelty done to zoo, racing, and circus animals in the name of entertainment, the horrors of the fur trade around the world, and all of it done in the name of "dominion over the creatures of the earth". I don't think all this suffering and killing is what God had in mind when he gave man dominion over the earth. And, even if man at one point in his existence relied more heavily out of necessity on animal products for sustenance, options are available today that make the need for the slaughtering of millions of sentient creatures year after year unnecessary. Scully's arguments are profound, bolstered by scholarly works throughout the ages, and biblical scriptures. Man should be a wise steward over the earth and its creatures, and what we are currently doing is not wise or merciful. Laws desperately need to be enacted in America and throughout the world that ensure the humane treatment of animals in all situations, and prescribe serious punishment to those who would break those laws. Some European countries are taking the lead by banning gestation crates, battery cages for chickens, and veal crates. America needs to follow suit and start reforming by legal statutes, the cruel factory farming practices that have developed over the years. Even if you still want to eat meat after reading a book like this, the animals that you consume should have the right to a minimal standard of care and living conditions appropriate to their species, until they are called on to be sacrificed for your dining pleasure. Their end should be a merciful death, not the kind that is seen in slaughter-houses throughout the world today, where they are often cut up or boiled while still alive as they move through the conveyors by the millions, year in and year out! We should all be willing to pay more at the store for the privilege of eating our fellow peaceable creatures, who've done nothing to deserve the fate that we have foisted upon them, and at the very least, ensure that they don't suffer inhumanely for our appetites. The call to mercy in this book is eloquent and boldly proclaimed. Scully is absolutely the best author I have read on the subject of animal welfare. If you have any compassion toward animals, you would do well to read this book.

There's no shortage of writing dealing with the cruel treatment of animals, but these are almost across the board written by a lot of the same kinds of thinkers, coming from the same perspective.

What sets Dominion apart is that here is a denunciation of cruelty toward animals written by a conservative Christian who claims that mercy toward animals (and not a mere utilitarian "subduing" of them) is what the biblical tradition demands.

I think the significance of the book lies in Scully's premise rather than his conclusions. The book does not really seem to be written exclusively for conservatives or Christians (I actually think that if it had been, it could have been more succinct and stronger). Scully is so detailed here that it'd be easy to forget a lot of the information that he's trying to pass on. Moreover (perhaps to his credit?), he doesn't seem to try to win anyone over by simply "grossing out" his readers with the goriness of animal butchery (though of course he does offer an inside look inside factory farms). In fact, many times he can't seem to help but finish his thoughts with overt sentimentalism.

I think Scully would've done well to unpack a bit more the biblical tradition to which he wants to appeal. He makes quick references to God's undeniable concern and attention given to all of his creatures (God doesn't seem to think of animals as mere "machines"), the constant stream throughout Scripture of God's creation being good (if in need of redemption), the interesting observation of just who the Bible's "hunters" are (Nimrod, Esau), and the sensitivity of the likes of Saints Francis and Basil, William Wilberforce, and others (the Church has had a way of turning people who preach to birds and shelter stray animals into Saints far more often than it has hunters). I think Scully would also have done well to anticipate likely criticisms of the biblically-literate (ie: the mere presence of animals on menus in the Bible).

Scully rightfully distances himself from the homicidal conclusions of Peter Singer, and avoids being absolutist in his vegetariansim. His condemnation of animal treatment in the mainstream industry of meat production need not be taken as a condemnation of eating animals altogether.

The book is moral in its discussion and does not really delve into considerations of the healthfulness of eating animals. Scully devotes a chapter to the whaling industry (from which most of his readers will be pretty far removed), but says nearly nothing about fish or crustaceans, with only a passing glance at poor lobsters being boiled alive. He also deals more extensively with factory hog farms and only attempts to apply his lessons there to the chicken and cow farms. I think it also would've been appropriate to discuss animal captivity (zoos, Sea World, etc.).

The book itself I would rate 3 stars, but because he argues for a position that I think is hardly ever considered by most Christians and probably deserves some thought, I'd recommend it to others and grant an extra star.

Phenomenal!!!! Really broke my heart for the animal industry. Assuming his religious background is minimal. He does such a good job at explaining how all through Christendom we have cared for the well being of animals. He even creates some connections where Christians have followed in the foot steps of most secularist when considering the well being of animals.
I think after reading this everyone would be a vegetarian or at least more conscious of the meat they eat.

The introduction to this book is the most perfectly-worded description of our obligation to animal welfare (as opposed to animal rights) I have yet found. Beautiful. It is unfortunate the rest of the book starts leaning more to the extreme as it goes along. Though it appears well researched, I was extremely disappointed to see the usual (incorrect) PETA-distributed "facts" regarding circus elephants towards the end, and this forces me to question the validity of the rest of his data.

More than 10 years after its release, “Dominion” still reigns one of the most important books ever written about our (disastrous) relationship with animals – for two reasons.

First, this relationship has rarely, if ever, been addressed by a writer of Scully’s skills. His turns of phrase and rhetorical flourishes are valuable contributions to the messaging of the animal advocacy movement.

If you care about animals and especially if you want to talk or write about them, reading “Dominion” is well worth your time and effort.

Second, the book properly defines the single most misunderstood, misrepresented and deliberately distorted word in the Bible.

It is nothing less than tragic that people have used the Divine assignment of “dominion” to justify every cruelty to farmed and laboratory animals.

The “dominion” verse appears in Genesis 1:26, part of the same conversation in which God tells human beings to eat plants and only plants (Genesis 1:29).

Does anyone really think God was giving us carte blanche to cram egg-laying hens into cages no bigger than a sheet of office paper, to imprison female pigs in cages so small they can’t even turn around, or to commit any of the other atrocities that are Standard Operating Procedure in modern animal agriculture?

To take it a step further, given the fact that Genesis 1:26 and 1:29 are parts of a single conversation, does “dominion” entitle us to kill animals for food at all? The answer seems obvious.

This was hard. I was most interested in reading this book to hear from someone I would NOT normally agree with, but ultimately found so many of Scully’s arguments obvious and basic. Maybe to someone on the fence some of these topics might have landed differently… Either way, I was a bit surprised by the amount of very emotional/flowery arguments being made that I didn’t find very compelling — not because I disagree with the message, but because the worldview feels very mismatched. There seems to be a disconnect here in acknowledging the issue vs the system. I don’t feel like you can be a fanboy of capitalism while also being upset or surprised that animal agriculture has turned into what it has in the name of profit and efficiency. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Dominion was quite the thought-provoking read. Matthew Scully makes the case that animals, because of their vulnerability and inability to communicate with us, are that much more in need of our protection and mercy. While he carries his argument further than I agree with, he brings up many things that are worth considering along the way, Including the idea that the same reason we ought to be merciful to animals would apply to unborn humans as well.
Scully makes a reasonable and well-documented case that humans traffic in animal lives unmercifully, unnecessarily, and often, wastefully. Even if you do not choose to be a vegetarian, his book is worth reading to consider the welfare of the animals we eat and the economics surrounding animal cruelty on every continent. Caring for those who are vulnerable to us is a discipline in kindness and self-sacrifice, which, vegetarian or not, is a worthy thing.

This is a really good book. Through an anecdotal examination of several animal-based industries, Scully asks just a few simple questions: Is it right to inflict suffering on animals? If it is not, then how do we operate within that system to provide meat for ourselves? As a vegetarian, Scully shows a way through these moral questions. He does not do so in a heavy-handed way, and his vegetarianism is rarely discussed. This is one of the better books I've read on this topic and I will be thinking about its arguments for some time.

A smartly-written (though mildly outdated) look at humanity's relationship with animals, particularly where animals are exploited for profit or gain. Through Scully's thorough research, often by his first-hand accounts, we get glimpses into the worlds of big game hunting, whaling, factory farming, and scientific research, to see how animals are treated in these fields. Scully, though he sometimes comes off as antagonistic, is a persuasive, intelligent writer who challenges readers to think critically about human consumption and exploitation of animals, both wild and domestic. He is religious, but scientific; sentimental, but practical—It's a unique balance that I've rarely seen.
I'd be interested to know, if the book is ever updated, what changes would have to be made. The real hope, though, is for the book to become so outdated that no one would ever need to be reminded of a call to mercy.