Can an Animal Be a Slave? PETA, the animal rights organization, is initiating a lawsuit against Sea World for keeping killer whales (orcas) in captivity and using them as trained performers. The PETA argument is that keeping and forcing whales to perform is a violation of the 13th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution prohibiting slavery. PETA argues that the amendment never states that slaves must be human--and that, therefore, the amendment could also cover non-humans, such as orcas. In the words of a PETA news release, the suit hinges on the fact that the 13th Amendment, while prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude, does not specify that only humans can be victims. Marc Bekoff, my fellow PT blogger, has recently written about this lawsuit, and I recommend you take a look at his post. Marc seems to be taking a neutral position on the logical validity of PETAs lawsuit, while stating more generally--and positively--that at least it should provoke some useful discussion about the nature of our relationship with non-human animals.... More here: psychologytoday/blog/the-moral-lives-animals/201110/can-animal-be-slave
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 08:12:44 +0000
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