Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(43)
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1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm not a very good writer of reviews, but I did want to comment about this book - so I'll risk the public humiliation offer my thoughts.

Matthew Scully is clearly a deeply compassionate human being, and I'm so very happy that he had the guts to write this book. I'm sure he's probably had many opportunites to regret it (though I doubt he did even so).

I felt for him throughout the book because I know that a good percentage of people will refuse to even pick this book up (probably out of fear) - and of those that do, a good percentage won't be able to open their minds (hearts) to the message.

I've always been aware of the horrors of the factory farm and laboratory; however, I was not aware of the extent of cruelty and greed in the hunting industry - it made me indignant.

I think this book is an important start considering the climate we currently live in. I personally feel simply eliminating cruelty in factory farms is not enough; however, at least that is something that might be possible - to some degree anyway (whereas eliminating the slaughter of animals for food is probably never going to happen ever).

I hope this Matthew Scully will write more. People seem to warm to his writing style. I've given this book to many aquaintances to read, and they all came back with a new perspective on their reality - and they were happy for it.

I think it would be great for everyone to read this book - then each person could judge for themselves what they want to get from it.

As a vegetarian and animal protectionist my knowledge of the way we treat animals in America is what I would call "hard core". Reading this book, however, opened my eyes to additional aspects of animal profiteering that were heartbreaking. The first two chapters of the book had the greatest affect on me, and I'm not embarassed to admit that they made me cry. The best part about this book is that it isn't directed toward people like me who are already informed about a lot of the issues, but more towards the "common American" who uses animal products out of habit and doesn't really even think twice about it. After reading Dominion, I bought ten copies of this book, and used them as Christmas presents for my parents, aunts, and cousins. This is a great way to introduce yourself or someone you care about to the deplorable way that corporate America and the political elite treat animals in this country. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Matthew Scully's book lays out the important stuff. He's not interested in taking an ideological stand or labeling himself a "rights" person or a "welfare" person. Instead, he goes right to the heart of the matter of human morality and character in our relations with other creatures. Whatever your vocation, whether you're a hunter or a farmer or a scientist or a student or just a consumer and nothing else, you'll get something out of this book. It'll give you something to think about. It's a special pleasure to read someone who writes so eloquently. Most of the time, you'll be carried along by his haunting and beautiful prose.

I used this book as a teaching tool in my philosophy class, and it was far more effective to convey the important stuff about human morality towards animals than anything else I've used. My students lapped it up, found it immensely readable, and it made them think. Particularly effective, I think, is the way Scully speaks to the whole person--the spiritual, emotional as well as keenly rational--rather than just the latter. So, one responds with one's whole being. This book gets under your skin and stays there. Highly recommended for everyone.

Matthew Scully exclaims that vegetarianism should not be dismissed as "radical animal rights nonsense," given that vegetarians act consistently with the noble concepts from which human rights arise. But how ingenuously can human rights be cited as guideposts in a book that tells us how we ought to kill?

Yes, animal rights activists have extended the philosophy of human rights outward. But the book misses its own point: We do have concepts of human rights. We reject the continued enslavement of human beings outright. We make no exceptions for compassionate slavery.

Scully insists that only morality articulated in religious terms will carry the day, because "in America, it is worth noting that no moral cause ever got very far without speaking to religious conviction". But an earnest spirituality does not require acceptance of Scully's imperious view of animals any more than it requires adherence to the concept, presented in Genesis, of women's subservience to men, or the condonation of slavery in Leviticus. The idea of subjugation enabled us to own other animals in the first place, and then presented us with the spectrum of possible cruelties to inflict upon them. It then left to us the decision about just what degree of humane protections we ought to extend. Would Scully argue for laws to protect trafficked human beings -- mandating humane treatment, but not their release? A willingness to leave animals in the stream of commerce demonstrates Scully's acceptance of the very moral relativity that the book purports to repudiate.

In Scully's view, animals are inferior creatures to be kept in order by civilized authorities. Scully's view of animals is that "[t]heir gifts, the ones their Creator intended for them, are good for many things - governing just isn't one of them." Scully persists: "Someone has to assume domination, and looking around the earth we seem to be the best candidates". Given that Scully worked on Bush's presidential campaign, perhaps such an obsession can be expected; but great is the tragedy in cherishing the urge to govern so much that one employs the idea to antagonize every unsuspecting sentient being.

Scully relies on personal knowledge -- Bush rescues stray animals, notes Scully -- to conclude that Bush "would be appalled by the conditions of a typical American factory farm or packing plant." While this may well be true, Scully avoids any observation of the vast harm visited upon animals by the Bush administration's military exploits and open disdain for environmental protection. Because the book lacks the necessary political understanding to identify the interests of animals beyond the conditions set up after animals are already made into objects of commerce, any changes it effects will be superficial.

Unless you are an animal advocate who feels reflexively obliged to buy and praise every book by anyone who comes up with an opinion about animals, this author is not recommended. The rush by the animal protection community to sing Matthew Scully's praises is cause for alarm, for this conservative Christian version of animal advocacy promotes the very thinking that has objectified animals. If we can outgrow the tendency to aggrandize ourselves, perhaps we can respect animals on their own terms, and by doing so, we may yet learn to live peacefully with other human groups.

Meaningful change will not appear overnight, but if we envision and work for meaningful change, it will come. It will come one day at a time, as individuals discover their power to change social attitudes. Our main use of animals -- a use over which we have complete control -- involves eating them. We can call ourselves decent and holy and leave our moral responsibility with legislators, as Scully advises, or we could save a lot of time and get to the point: Eat something else.

I can understand why the author is a "former" speechwriter for Bush because I bet he doesn't get invited to many right-wing cocktail parties after writing this. He spends much of the book critiquing fundamentalist religious positions, hunting clubs, factory farming, and intellectuals who are alarmingly callous in their views on the sanctity of life. This is a worthwhile book that is a useful addition to my growing collection on animal rights.

No matter what your political point of view, this book on animal abuse is for you. Matthew Scully has written the best book on animal welfare in a generation. Not preachy or heavy-handed, Scully has penned a book that is accessible to the average person who does not give a damn about animals. Read this book and you will weep for all mankind. Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, this book is for you!!

Matthew Scully book is everything that others have attempted to be. He has done his homework and delivers the cold hard facts. While I read the book, I fought the urge to pull out my highlighter. It is simply brilliant. When I read the final page, I put down the book and I felt as if I had "seen" something that wasn't there before. He has found a way to articulate the way so many of us feel. I can see that it is already making some people nervous. This is not your mother's animal rights movement.

A meditation not on suffering, but on power. The standing arguments that animals deserve our mercy becuase of "rights" becomes an interesting parlor game compared to the concept of mercy and responsibility. The commoditization of sentient beings--human and nonhuman--surely has to be the ultimate power that our species holds and how we choose to wield it will define our moral future. For that reason alone it should be read.

Don't be fooled, as my friend two reviews down is, to comfortably escape the implications of our power by simply saying 'its OK to eat meat'. To say that this book is about being a vegetarian is to say that "The Old Man and the Sea" is about fishing.

Fighting for the past 10 months to make the slaughter of American horses illegal has turned me away from my conservative Republican leanings and also made me a rabid reader of books on animal feelings and animal welfare. None of these books holds a candle to DOMINION. I recommend it to everyone, whether they adore animals or are indifferent to them, whether they are socially liberal or conservative, religious or not. (I even e-mailed all the Illinois state legislators and told them they had to read DOMINION before deciding how they will vote this spring on a bill to ban horse slaughter.) This is an eloquently written, hauntingly sad, impeccably reasoned, morally enlightened and Biblically illuminating treatise on the important of treating earth's creatures (wildlife, livestock, research subjects, marine life) with kindness and mercy, respecting their inherent dignity and their unique purpose in life. I love how Scully holds a mirror to the ridiculous arguments of those who justify crushing the spirit and life out of "lesser" beings. He allows them to make fools of themselves, so he doesn't have to personally attack them to make the point that they are devoid of both compassion and logic. If reading DOMINION doesn't make the receptive reader stop eating meat and start demanding an end to the legal torture of animals, nothing will. Needless to say, I couldn't put it down, and I sure marked it up!

Matthew Scully's philosophical and ethical argument on the treatment of animals is a wonderful read. Beautifully written and candid on all fronts Scully tells it like it is, confronting whalers, big game hunters and most of all factory farms.

His use of bible scripture further adds to the evidence of humans' gone horribly astray, torturing animals for profit and justifying it with self-centered, humanistic arguments. Scully sees those holes and exposes them with brilliance, humor and sincerity.

Most of all, Scully writes from the heart. Dominion compels the reader to reflect upon ones own actions and choices in life and to take a serious look at the world around. Upon completion one cannot help but see the world in a different way, with both disdain and hope.