"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 with simple dignity and compassion.
Somewhere along the way, something has gone wrong.
In Dominion, we witness the annual convention of Safari Club International, an organization whose wealthier members will pay up to $20,000 to hunt an elephant, a lion or another animal, either abroad or in American "safari ranches," where the animals are fenced in pens. We attend the annual International Whaling Commission conference, where the skewed politics of the whaling industry come to light, and the focus is on developing more lethal, but not more merciful, methods of harvesting "living marine resources." And we visit a gargantuan American "factory farm," where animals are treated as mere product and raised in conditions of mass confinement, bred for passivity and bulk, inseminated and fed with machines, kept in tightly confined stalls for the entirety of their lives, and slaughtered in a way that maximizes profits and minimizes decency.
Throughout Dominion, Scully counters the hypocritical arguments that attempt to excuse animal abuse: from those who argue that the Bible's message permits mankind to use animals as it pleases, to the hunter's argument that through hunting animal populations are controlled, to the popular and "scientifically proven" notions that animals cannot feel pain, experience no emotions, and are not conscious of their own lives.
The result is eye opening, painful and infuriating, insightful and rewarding. Dominion is a plea for human benevolence and mercy, a scathing attack on those who would dismiss animal activists as mere sentimentalists, and a demand for reform from the government down to the individual. Matthew Scully has created a groundbreaking work, a book of lasting power and importance for all of us.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Would have been a good magazine article:

My dogsitter insisted I read this book, exclaiming over Matthew Scully's elogquent writing and the fact that he wrote Sarah Palin's very inspiring acceptance speech at the Republican convention. His material here would have made an interesting speech or in depth article. Yes, his writing is eloquent. Yes, it's an interesting subject. But it takes a right wing Christian turn at every opportunity. It's not spiritual, it's political. It's difficult to read for more than a few pages because you feel yourself... more info

Matthew Scully = disingenuous and hypocritical author:

Boycott this book and the author. He is a confused and hypocritical man who is a speechwriter for Gov. Sarah Palin, the woman who supports aerial hunting of wolves and bears, as well as pulling wolf pups from their dens and shooting them. Matthew Scully does NOT care about the suffering of animals.

Not helpful to the animals and written by a perpetuator of war:

This book does nothing but make excuses for treating animals as slaves and putting forth the Christian perspective. When the book came out, I was invited to a private party to meet the author whom I immediately thought was not at all an animal supporter and not at all someone whom I could ever respect. Over the years, he has gone on to prove this as a Bush/Cheney lackey, who has pushed the phoney war agenda, makes excuses for treating animals kindly, and who has now crafted the speech of Sarah Palin, the... more info

Scully Hypocrite:

I find Scully to be a hypocrite, liar and greed monger. He wrote Sarah Palin's sneering, nasty speech, stretching truths about who she is and outrighting lying and chiding our presidential nominees. His hate speech full of divisive and attack lines will be remembered and talked about in the short term, but in the long term, the results of his manipulated words and outcome on society will be on his conscience alone. How could he write such a negative hate speech for a women who shoots animals from a... more info

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