We visited SeaWorld in Orlando, FL in 2010. Not long ago, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sought a court ruling (in the Ninth Circuit) declaring that SeaWorld’s orcas were slaves and needed freedom under the 13th Amendment. Their “argument” was that the amendment does not define slaves as “human beings”. The judge did not accept their argument.
This is not the first time the environmental left has tried to elevate animals to the level of humans. They have tried since 1859 to get humans down on the level of animals. Now they are trying to “evolve” the animals up to human status. The concept of “animal standing” suggests that animals ought to be able to sue humans in court.
In 2008, the European Court of Human Rights agreed to hear an appeal from the Supreme Court in Austria which denied personhood to a chimpanzee. According to Wesley J. Smith, of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism, writing in The Weekly Standard (April 9/April 16; pg 23-24), Steven Wise of the Nonhuman Rights Project is working to get animals recognized with the same rights as humans. He and his coworkers are researching states and jurisdictions where they would most likely succeed. Will he be successful?
Smith points out that “animal personhood” is already respected in philosophical circles, the life sciences and much of academia. Earlier in 2012, the American Association for the Advancement of Science publicly supported the Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans (the scientific grouping of whales).
Smith brings up an interesting counterpoint. How can cetaceans and chimpanzees themselves respect the rights of others? Has Steven Wise forgotten that orcas are nicknamed killer whales for a reason? Have you ever seen them feeding?
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As Smith indicates, it will only take one judge who wants to make a name for himself to open the path for numerous lawsuits. Lawyers are already preparing their arguments.
The Bible teaches that humans and animals are distinctly separate beings. Animals are not made in the likeness of God. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27).
As crazy as it may sound, we need to prepare ourselves to argue that animals do not deserve the “rights” accorded to humans!
