Blake Gillespie--Shepard on freeing animals

I feel like Shepard contradicts himself once or twice, (or more) in Tender Carnivore. One part is near the end when he calls us to release domestic animals into the wild, because they are "surrogate people--264." Earlier in the book however, he claimed that the hunter is always in need of an animal companion as a pyschological edge over their hunted. Also, when he mentions domestic animals as surrogate people, he says they are nonsensical and it is just a romantic-humanitarian concept. I feel like domestic animals are a necesity. One example of this I have seen recently is when I watched the film "I am Legend." Will Smith's character, as one of the last men on earth, has a golden retriever named Sam who is his only companion. It seemed like he flourished around Sam, but when he lost him, he was also lost. I feel like companionship is a necessity, and not a burden.