My Generation 1: Judge Errs By Failing To Demonstrate Common Sense (Sea World Decision)

"Much learning does not teachunderstanding."  -- 
Herakleitos, Fragment 16

Killer whales denied anti-slavery protection

By Lauren Steussy, NBCSanDiego.com, Feb.9, 2012

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit that sought togive killer whales at SeaWorld constitutional rights.

     Theanimal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) suedSeaWorld Inc. in San Diego on Oct. 6, 2011, for allegedly violatingthe anti-slavery 13th Amendment rights of orca whales.

        Monday,U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller heard the case. Miller was the first judge toever hear arguments over animals' constitutional rights.

      Millerdid not immediately dismiss the case. Instead, he took it under submissionMonday after about an hour of questioning.

   "As 'slavery'and 'involuntary servitude' are uniquely human activities, as those terms havebeen historically and contemporaneously applied, there is simply no basis toconstrue the Thirteenth Amendment as applying to non-humans," Millerstated in his ruling.

     SeaWorldfiled a motion to have case dismissed even before the hearing.

     "Today’sdecision does not change the fact that the orcas who once lived naturally wild andfree are today kept as slaves by SeaWorld," a PETA spokesperson statedWednesday after the ruling. "PETA will regroup and determine how tocontinue to work for the legal protection they deserve."

     In thecourthouse Monday, an attorney representing SeaWorld said that PETA's argumentshad "no place in a federal courtroom." He added that, regardless ofwhether animals were being abused, this was not a matter of constitutionality.If PETA were truly concerned about the well-being of the whales, they wouldfile an Animal Welfare Act lawsuit, he said.

     "Orcas... are not human beings. And I need not remind the court thatAfrican-Americans are," the attorney said, drawing on the intentionof the 13th Amendment to abolish the slavery of humans.

     Theofficial complaint filed in October in the U.S. District Court for SouthernCalifornia lists five SeaWorld orcas as collective plaintiffs inthe case. Three of those killer whales live in the San Diego SeaWorld park. Theother two live in the Orlando location. 

     "Theywere ripped from their homes and families with whom they would have spent theirentire lives," said Kerr. "They're denied everything natural to them. 

          They'reconfined in the equivalent of concrete bathtubs."

 

     PETAalleges that the two SeaWorld locations restrained and kept the whales in“constant involuntary physical confinement,” with no means to escape. Thecomplaint also accuses SeaWorld of depriving the killer whales of “theirability to live in a manner of their choosing” and for “intentionallysubjugating” the killer whales’ “wills, desires, and/or natural drives andneeds of [SeaWorld’s] own will and whims.”

     Inresponse, SeaWorld said the killer whales have no constitutional standing, andthe lawsuit is a waste of the court's time.

  "PETA hasonce again showed that it prefers publicity stunts to the hard work of caringfor, rescuing and helping animals," SeaWorld's spokesperson said inOctober.

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NOTE:   

Memo to Judge Jeffrey Miller:  

"The orcas at Sea World are slaves."

  

MyGeneration --The Who (Link)