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.
Table of Contents
Introduction ix
1 The Things That Are 1
Mere Pain 2
Into Your Hands 11
Practical Ethics 20
Reckless Divine Cruelty 24
This Lovely World 28
Tasty Nibbles 36
2 The Shooting Field 47
Skins and Bones 49
Take Charge 52
Fair Chase 56
The Deer Factory 62
Men of Influence 67
A Spot of Plains Game 72
The Curators 77
Nimrod.com 81
3 Matters of Consequence 88
Go Forth 90
The Lord of Mercy 95
Laissez-Faire 100
Imperative Cooking 108
Deeper Than Choice 112
The Prosperity Bible 120
Back at the Ranch 126
Think a Second Time 130
Mild Qualms 135
4 Riches of the Sea 141
Save the Whales for Dinner 142
Collective Guilt 146
Time to Death 150
Wise Use 155
Scientific Research 161
Cultural Imperialism 169
Brave Fish 177
Sanctuary 186
5 The Laws 191
Unknowable Territory 194
The Masquerade 200
Want Nut 209
Thinking About Thoughts 217
Profound Respect 229
The Stress Gene 235
Knowledge Without Love 241
6 Deliver Me from My Necessities 247
Managerial Intensity 249
The New Agriculture 253
State of the Art 259
Lean Generation 263
For Their Own Good 269
Piece by Piece 277
7 Nature and Nature's God 287
Necessary Evils 288
Thou Shalt Not 294
Self-Evident Truths 299
The Mirror Test 305
A Crime Against Nature 312
A Fresh Start 325
An Obligation of Justice 337
8 Justice and Mercy 350
Game Butchery 353
An Abomination 360
Noah's Choice 368
Sinning Bravely 375
They Know Pain 389
The Good Shepherds 393
