California Court To Rule Whether SeaWorld Whales Are Illegal ‘Slaves’

By on February 8, 2012 in News 33

killerwhaletRegardless of the slim odds of a favorable ruling, it’s a groundbreaking case in its use of the Constitution to fight for intelligent animals’ freedom. Via PhysOrg:

A California federal court is to decide for the first time in US history whether amusement park animals are protected by the same constitutional rights as humans.

The issue arises from a lawsuit filed by rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in a San Diego court on behalf of five orcas named Tilikum, Katina, Corky, Kasatka and Ulises. The whales perform water acrobatics at the SeaWorld amusement parks in San Diego and in Orlando, Florida.

PETA argues that continuing the whales’ “employment” at SeaWorld violates the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits slavery. District Judge Jeffrey Miller heard arguments in the complaint Monday and reviewed the response from SeaWorld, which asked that the lawsuit be dismissed. His ruling is expected to come later. “It’s a new frontier in civil rights,” said Jeff Kerr, PETA general counsel, who described the hearing as a “historic day.”

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  • Andyisshiezta

    I can’t wait to hear the comments defending the position that animals are people. 

    • sonicbphuct

      yeah, cause only people have rights. the earth and the rest of the inhabitants were given to people by a nebulous god who speaks in 1st person plural. Duh!

      or did you mean, arguing that humans are actually animals in every possible biological context, but that not all animals are humans – cause arguing against that would be funny.

      • Monkey See Monkey Do

        A point so often missed when the adage ‘animals are people too’ is used.

        Meat, even in organic and natural form, is not that good for you too eat. It’s what archaic societies resorted to eating as a last resort because of environmental destruction (man-made & natural) and ever since environmental destruction has risen and resources have been more restricted, flesh eating has risen exponentially.

        • JaceD

          Eatting meat increased the brain size and capacity in early humans… No doubt they did eat it as a last resort, but the development of canine teeth and binocular vision are traits found only in predatory animals.

          • Calypso_1

            In primate anthropology human dentition is classified as fruit/insectivore.  Yum : )

          • JaceD

            Ha, insects are high in protein and are actually quite tastey (depending on the insect). Serve me up a huhu grub any day!

          • JaceD

            It’s also worth noting that humans aren’t the only primates who eat meat, as Monkey see Monkey do said, it isn’t by choice… In most cases. Chimpz are infamous for eatting meat and even cannibalising other chimps, not when they’re starving but often when they have territory disputes with other packs of chimps, the winning pack will eat the loosers.

            Not even David Attenborough knows why they do this.

          • Monkey See Monkey Do

            Eating meat did not increase brain size!. The scientific theory is that that the development in the jaw line from eating meat enabled our cranial capacity to encase larger brains. This is a scientific ‘theory’ by the way, a politically motivated one if you ask me.

          • Mogley71

             mushrooms did

          • JaceD

            Reaching a higher consciousness through mushrooms? You must be trippin’ O_o

          • JaceD

            It is a scientific theory, but not a baseless one. I do agree, we have to be skeptical with anything but I’m not too sure what you mean by a politically motivated one? We have been eatting meat longer than politics has been around.

          • Andrew

            Actually, our mouths and digestive system are not capable of handling uncooked meat, so we must have invented cooking first, which means we had highly developed brains prior to eating meat.

          • JaceD

            You can eat raw meat, obviously chicken and other bacteria filled meats not so much, although your digestive system can adapt to eatting raw chicken (if it doesn’t kill you first) But raw beef, lamb and pretty much everyother red meat can be eatten raw.

            Early humans were scavangers, they would eat whatever they could find, including rotting carcasses.

          • Andrew

            Again, we need tools to cut up that raw meat.  Our teeth and mouths aren’t made for tearing raw flesh out of carcasses, we have pathetic canines.  And beef and lamb can certainly have bacteria.

          • JaceD

            Our canines  have shrunk over the evolutionary scale, obviously we couldn’t tear through flesh now. This would have been around the start of humans using tools, sharp rocks, sharp stick whatever. Beef and lamb do have bacteria, but barely at harmfull levels. I eat red meat blue.

          • Monkey See Monkey Do

            The meat industry is a big industry with alot of money and alot of power. I guess that’s what I mean by politically motivated. Politics….politics has always been around.

          • JaceD

            Ah I’m with you. Agriculture is my countries biggest exporter, so definitely agree that there is alot of money and power associated with the meat industry. I still don’t think politics has always been a big motivator of humans eatting meat though… Probably in the last century, but not since humans first thought to sink their teeth into a juicy steak ;)

  • Libtardtroll

    Meh, mEH, The Republicans are responsible.. they make dolphins sad.

  • justagirl

    they already get breaks, meals and room and board just to screw around all day.  i’m sure if they could speak they would tell pita to shut the hell up.

    • sonicbphuct

       so, they’re wal-mart “associates”?

    • Andrew

      What do they have against flatbread?

      • justagirl

        lol.  me sofaking.  

  • Calypso_1

    What about transient pods that only come to US territorial waters to spawn?  Obviously these anchor baby whales are just a ploy to disrupt American Marine Mammal Defense Programs.

    • Calypso_1

      In all seriousness, any of you kids not familiar with the work of the late Dr. John C. Lilly should go read up.  http://www.johnclilly.com/

  • marklar_primus

    Mammalian vegan bigots. Until far right winger freaks like PETA recognize that carrots are people just as much as anybody else I’m  no longer going to eat at World Wraps.

    • Chachiichachii

      I agree PETA is a group of retards throwing red paint on mink coats, but whales and other porpoises have been shown to be just as intelligent or even more intelligent than humans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8DBJRRz_hA. We need to be able to recognize other higher thinking organisms as sentient beings rather than just pets/slaves.

      • sonicbphuct

         yeah! Slavery is bad, but abolitionists are a group of retards!

    • sonicbphuct

       are you going to incorporate your campaign with the until-there-is-no-abortion-i-wont-have-the-taco-bell-shits movement?

  • Mamagriff50

    No…The court won’t rule in favor of the whales. We all know that. What a shame. All of our rights are being taken away too. And it seems to me your all ignorant, or you just don’t care. Whales raised in captivity wouldn’t survive in the wild just like other animals. But they should ban catching and caging them. Everything on this earth has an inate right to exist…..and be free.

  • Liquidself

    This a great case.  The issue isn’t going away either.   Even if the judge rules in favor of Seaworld ; the issue will keep coming up just as it did with slavery in the U.S.  Recent research has shown that cetaceans are very likely sentient and self-aware and have a true language.  Think about it – why are dophins successful at clearing mines?  Because they actually know what they are supposed to do, they understand the intent.  If it were just a clever animal,  why haven t dogs been used successfully for the same job?

    • Redacted

      If its true, and Homo Sapiens only rules because we drew the straw on being able to build technology…

      Imagine the pants being shat.

  • GregForest

    Seems to me that animals are more “people” than corporations eh?

  • justagirl

    sofaking goooood.