Title
READ // Dominion : The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy
Recommended Title
Dominion : The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy
By Matthew Scully
New York, NY : St. Martin’s Press, c2002
HV4708.S38 2002
Comments
From Professor Christian Halliburton:
This book chose me. An accidental discovery, written by an active member of political circles in which I do not run, Dominion has nevertheless been one of the most powerful intellectual and personal influences of my recent life. As a devout vegetarian, a book which details the horrors or humanity’s treatment of animals of all varieties – from factory farming to staged kills during big game hunting – has ready if not uncomfortable appeal. I was nevertheless unprepared for the onslaught of ideas and emotions which Dominion evoked. I had not seen an articulation of the moral quandary created by the routine infliction of suffering on animals that matched my own passionate commitments until this work. From Biblical entreaties that we exercise dominion over the earth, to modern ‘conservationist’ arguments in favor of exotic species ‘harvesting,’ the range of excuses used to justify the ongoing torture of sentient beings is systematically debunked. The power of the pen is on full display in Dominion, and it provides a light to guide the development of scholarship in general.
From the Publisher:
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.
About the Author:
Matthew Scully served from January 2001 to July 2002, and from December 2002 to August 2004, as special assistant and senior speechwriter to President George W. Bush. He worked in the President's 2000 campaign and has also written for Vice Presidents Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney, and the late Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey, with whom he collaborated on Fighting for Life. A former literary editor for the National Review, his work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, and The New York Times, among other newspapers and magazines. He lives with his wife Emmanuelle in Phoenix, Arizona.