Image: Irina Silvestrova/Shutterstock
Intelligent beings captured and forced to live in tiny space, then made to perform daily to entertain the masses. Sounds like slavery? PETA thinks so and they're suing ... on behalf of killer whales against SeaWorld:
LinkIt is reportedly the first time a US court has heard legal arguments over whether animals should enjoy the same constitutional protections as humans.
SeaWorld's legal team said the case was a waste of time and resources.
The marine park'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."
He said that if the case were successful, it could have implications not just on how other marine parks or zoos operate, but even on the police use of sniffer dogs to detect bombs and drugs.
Peta says the killer whales are treated like slaves for being forced to live in tanks and perform daily at the SeaWorld parks in California and Florida.
That being said, I do agree that whales don't belong in captivity. They are large creatures that are known to travel hundreds (even thousands) of miles in a year. They are also intelligent animals that most likely know that they are in captivity. While there are cases of injured whales being rescued, and not being healthy enough to be rehabilitated to ocean life, the majority of these animals belong in their natural habitat.
1) Seeing-eye dogs should be illegal.
2) If animals are protected by the Constitution, then when a cougar kills a deer, the cougar should get some hard time for the murder (perhaps behind bars in a zoo?).
3) If someone wants to build a new house, sorry, ants and a lot of other creatures already inhabit that land. They must willingly relocate.
4) If someone gets head lice, well, learn to live with them. The human noggin is their natural habitat.