Scully comes across as someone who has obviously thought long, hard, and very deeply about the subject, and as one who has often sat in quietude and done a lot of serious soul searching himself. He laments religions silence at the continuous suffering of animals and the abuses all too common in the meat trade, saying; " When did you last hear a minister caution against cruelty to animal's?". He feels this may be due in part to  "their fear that kindness to animals might link them to pagan and nature worship" a fear that could not have any foundation. If it were true, then it would seem that pagans are actually more compassionate than most Christians, which is rather damning to say the least, especially as Scully notes that in the Beatitudes Christ commanded his followers to be merciful.  Not everyone involved in animal advocacy has been as lucky as Scully to have been in the right place at the right time, and he took a lot of trouble to personally visit many factory farms so he could accurately inform us of the pitliless plight of animals first hand. 

Experience
Thankfully Scully's talents have not been limited to humans; in him the animals have also found a formidable champion, one who empathises with what is most often for them, a life of intolerable misery.  When many people think of animal rights, they picture mistreated cats and dogs, but Scully opens up the subject by showing why we should also take a firm stand in behalf of what are for most people the least deserving of compassion; those who are reared on factory farms for the nations food,  and even more surprisingly those with gills. 

However he freely admits that he initially wondered whether to include farm animals in this book at all, due to the possibility of less readership, but his awareness of the magnitude of suffering that such animals have endured made it utterly impossible for him to omit them. He also put his extensive working knowledge of the Bible and ethical reasoning to good use, pointing out in essence that though the divine command "you may kill and eat” comes from God; the decision to be merciful originates within us ourselves. He further notes that that when the Bible says that when God made man and stood back and said “it is very good”, that he had already said that very same thing earlier with regard to the animals!. In the book Christians  are reminded that "kindness to animals is a small yet necessary part of a decent and holy life". And he asks them a further question "if sanctity is the goal and flesh eating a mark of the Fall, the one is to be sought and the other avoided" and again  "why just say grace when you can show it".

Scully places a lot of emphasis on recognizing the need to be good stewards of the animals and planet, and hopes that as more people come to understand the unecessary suffering animals are subjected to, they will hopefully be moved to help end it.  He also shows how heartless the attitude of factory farmers can be, especially when they try to justify the incarceration of animals by such statements as; they are "put here for their own good!".
Dominion certainly made me stop and look at how I live, and how I can refocus my energies to help end animal abuse, and I'm sure it will the same for others.

Touched by animals
A deep sense of love for animal kind is very evident in Scully’s writing; he freely admits to have been touched in some way by all the individual animals that have come into his life, especially his dogs. He sees very clearly that most animal farming practice and slaughtering is not actually "a necessary evil" at all, but one that  is for most of us quite an easily avoidable one!. He urges us to "Look into the corner of the darkest filthiest pen , at the little pig, calf or lamb", and see that "this too is one of Gods creatures" .

He shows how to all creatures the initial love of the mother is important, perhaps even vital!. Scully has a lot of respect for free thinkers such as Leo Tolstoy and seems to have signed up to the viewpoint he put forth in his own book (Resurrection); " that every creature has a sacred right, to the gladness of springtime". Like Tolstoy Scully seems to not only view it as a moral/ ethical duty to help make it so, but a sacred one too.

Condemnation of unecessary hunting
During the course of his work he also had the advantage of coming face to face with the" trophy hunters", these aren’t your average man in the street but the "money folk”, who are prepared to pay vast sums just to extinguish the life of a sometimes very rare and magnificent animal from its natural habitat. HIs career opened many such doors of opportunity that for others in the same field still remain firmly closed. He also had the chance to hear the conversations of these pitiless hunters,  and saw the honour bestowed on them after an impressive kill. 

At these conventions, he knew that he must keep silent, at least for the present, and as noted in the Bible he quotes is the advice “there is a time to speak and a time to keep quite” and he knew that the greater good can come from having the insight to know the difference.  He did however diligently note down all the facts, and describes in great detail  the senseless and hideous cruelty that goes on especially in “canned hunts” where animals are cornered and shot in closed compounds.

Scully also looks into how the British treat wild animals and how they used to laud fox hunting and those who engaged in it. In his eyes it is a tragedy that some think it both a pleasure and a privilege to hunt down a single helpless fox with dozens of blood crazed hounds. Since Dominion was first published, Fox hunting has thankfully been banned in the UK under the Labour party government; however just because one party favours compassion and an end to foxhunting it doesnt always follow that the others will support their viewpoint.

Appeal to the conscience
I am sure that Scully’s quest with "Dominion" will appeal to many a conscience, and will be a great help in keeping us focused on relieving the suffering of of beast and bird, as well as that of our own kind whenever we can.  It will especially appeal to those who are morally and ethically awakened, those who see clearly the dangers to society of allowing  animal abuse to continue unopposed. 

One of the most remarkable features of of Scully’s personality is his apparent lack of fear of being ridiculed for showing compassion for farm animals; as he considers all of them,  poultry, animals, birds as well  as ocean going whales and fish to be his fellow creatures.

I was particularly moved by how he described the utter sadness and hopelessness in some pigs, and the outright defiance in others incarcerated in cruel factory farms. His conclusion after witnessing their plight is that animals (such as pigs) should not be denied the opportunity to engage in "natural behaviour" ; that  means that they should not be made to live on concrete as they are, but be allowed to root through the soil for food and also build nests for giving birth in. He also recounts in the book how he was deeply saddened by the avoidable animal holocaust  that occurred during the Mad Cow disease and foot and mouth epidemics in Britain, when thousands upon thousands of animals went up in smoke on burning pyres that illuminated the sky at night.   

He presents facts that prove that many animals are not only surprisingly intelligent, but highly aware of their place in their community. And he is inspired when animals make a break for their freedom; one moving account he documents is that of Butch and Sundance, two pigs who leapt to liberty while enroute to an abattoir in the UK, when these were finally tracked down they were not shot or sent back to the abbatoir, but were eventually cared for by the public. Scully's advice to anyone who cares that animals suffer cruel mistreatment at human hands is to view their abuse like this; "Some things cannot under any circumstances ever be justified. When we find them we must call them what they are, evils, and set about ridding those evils from our midst"

Being a realist, Scully knows that animals are completely at our mercy, and that nobody can “make” us feel compassion, empathy, or pity for animals who are in need of it. We have to find that within ourselves.                                                                                   

by George Powell