Compassion for animals

Michele Marr

For Lisa H. Iyer, the relationship between her spirituality and her

advocacy for animals is so close she refers to it as a marriage.

It’s that relationship, along with her familiarity with and

admiration for Matthew Scully’s recently published book, “Dominion,

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

that led The Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment

to ask her to facilitate a discussion of the book.

“[This] book can touch millions who have never before been reached

with the message of compassion for, as St. Francis put it, our animal

brothers and sisters,” said Iyer, who is program director for In

Defense of Animals’ Guardian Campaign and consultant to Beagles and

Buddies Dog Rescue and Orange County People for Animals.

Animal advocates and Christendom have long abided an uneasy

relationship and, as Scully acknowledges in his book, conservatives

“tend to view the subject with suspicion.”

It’s often been a war of worldviews. Many who call for more humane

treatment of animals also reject the idea that God made man in his

image then gave mankind dominion over the rest of creation.

“Dominion” is widely regarded as the first major book on the

treatment of animals to be written by a conservative Christian.

Scully’s ideas have gained a good deal of attention for that reason

and because he happens to be special assistant and speechwriter to

President George W. Bush.

“Scully presents the conservative Christian community with reasons

why they should care about animals,” said Iyer, who describes her own

faith as eclectic and her practice of it oriented toward meditation

and contemplation.

“I believe all the major traditions have much to teach,” she said.

“I don’t have an allergy to the word ‘God’ or ‘Creator,’ so I feel at

home in the book.”

In his book, Scully asserts, “When [man] lets a demanding palate

make his moral choices, that is gluttony ... And when he gets angry

at being reminded of animal suffering that his own daily choices

might help avoid, that is moral cowardice.”

On Saturday, Iyer will talk about the central ideas advanced by

Scully in his book and about the significance they bring to bear on

everyday, personal choices.

The book is not without its critics. Author Caroline Fraser

accuses Scully of writing “in a dated, patronizing and sentimental

way, as if unaware of the growing scientific understanding of the

complexity of animal behavior, intelligence and even language.”

Iyer, who holds a doctorate in comparative literature, disagrees

with Fraser’s criticism.

“His writing [is] fabulous and frankly delicious to read,” she

said. “One finds something new in it each time one returns to it,

[which] is the mark of an excellent work.”

Fraser also wrote in the Los Angeles Times about Scully’s call for

change in the treatment of animals.

“[He] seems to have lost track of an essential fact: We, too, are

animals, moved less by reason than by appetite, less by rationality

than by avidity, rapacity and greed,” she wrote.

Iyer thinks it is Fraser, who missed an essential point.

“We can do better than that,” she said. “We have options that

other species don’t have.”

Some critics of animal advocacy complain that with so much human

suffering in the world, animal suffering is a lesser issue, a concern

to put a little lower on the list of human priorities.

But Iyer sees it differently.

“Compassion is not a finite commodity,” she said. “This is about

enlarging the circle of compassion, not about doling out caring in

miserly rations.”

She sees our best instincts reflected in the Humane Slaughter Act

and other anti-cruelty laws, which although too often neglected and

ignored, have been on the books for years.

She thinks change is possible and points to every person who has

changed as proof of that.

“If you are a person whose faith informs your life yet have not

considered the relevance of stewardship to your daily choices, [this

interactive discussion] will put you on that path,” Iyer said.

* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She

can be reached at [email protected].