In the news this week is a ground-breaking story about a lawsuit filed by PETA against SeaWorld on behalf of five plaintiff orcas/killer whales. Charges are being filed against both the Orlando park and the San Diego park for the enslavement of the orcas. The lawyer handling the case, Jeff Kerr, makes the case that these orcas are unjustly enslaved and kept in involuntary servitude–forced to perform and confined to tanks in the parks. For the first time ever, nonhuman animals are being considered under the 13th Amendment that made slavery illegal in the United States in 1865. SeaWorld argued aggressively that the case was a waste of time and resources and lobbied for the judge to throw out the case immediately:
SeaWorld’s lawyer, Theodore Shaw, told the court in San Diego: “Neither orcas nor any other animal were included in the ‘We the people’… when the Constitution was adopted.” ~BBC News
But the legal representation for PETA begs to differ. This lawsuit has been an ongoing process, and despite SeaWorld’s attempts to get the judge to throw out the case, on Monday February 6th, Judge Jeffrey Miller stated that he would consider the case and issue a ruling at a later date. This is a huge step in the right direction for this case. But this case is not just about winning the freedom of the five orcas on whose behalf the case is filed. This is about fundamentally changing the way we think about nonhuman animals and recognizing their enslavement by humans is one step in changing human/nonhuman animal relations. Kerr says:
“It’s a new frontier in civil rights,” Kerr said in his summary of the case. Slavery does not depend on the species of the slave any more than it depends on race, gender, or ethnicity, he argued. “Coercion, degradation, and subjugation characterize slavery, and these orcas have endured all three.” ~PETA
Follow
So, since corporations have been granted “personhood”, I think the “personhood” of orcas should be a vastly superior and easier argument to make and win.
Seriously! You’d certainly hope so!