COMMENTARY | The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, always willing to entertain, has filed a lawsuit against SeaWorld, alleging the park has violated the Constitutional rights of five orcas that perform there under the 13th Amendment, according to the Los Angeles Times.
For those who are constitutionally impaired, that is the amendment that slavery.
The orcas names are Tilikum, Katina, Kasatka, Ulises and Corky, three of whom are in the San Diego park, two in the Orlando, Fla., park.
SeaWorld attorneys are petitioning the court to dismiss the lawsuit as frivolous and an obvious publicity stunt by the animal rights organization that is infamous for over the top publicity stunts. PETA lawyer Jeffery Kerr, according to the Daily Mail, seems to be in earnest.
It is Kerr's position that SeaWorld is engaging in slavery because it is forcing members of an intelligent, social species to perform tricks for the edification of park guests against their will. The fact that the orcas are not human beings does not enter into the matter. Women and African Americans, Kerr maintains, were once considered less than human.
Two years ago, MSNBC ran a story that suggested that Orca intelligence rivals that of humans. One characteristic that orcas share with humans is that there are capable of premeditated murder. One of the proposed plaintiffs to the PETA case, Tilikum, has been involved in the deaths of three human beings, including one of his trainers. Some scientists suggest that the cramped conditions the orca has been kept in caused a form of anxiety disorder that resulted in it lashing out.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller is taking the case under advisement, but has expressed skepticism that animals can be parties to a law suit. He also wondered about the implications of a favorable ruling. The Navy uses dolphins for mine clearing operations, for example.
It is tempting to laugh off the suit as another stunt by PETA. Judge Miller will likely dismiss the case. But the fact that the case has reached a courtroom at all should be disturbing to most people.
Cruelty to animals is one thing. It is not the sort of thing that should be allowed. But regarding animals as persons under the Constitution is a stretch, to say the least. That applies even to those who have intelligence, such as dolphins, whales, and orcas, at least until a means is found to communicate with them.
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