Or not. A US Judge has today thrown out a case brought before him by the animal rights group PETA which claimed that the killer whales at Sea World were being held as slaves, which went against the US Constitution. The Judge ruled that the Constitution only 
applies to people and the case was thrown out in less than an hour.
According to the report a Sea World spokesperson said that the speed with which the case was dismissed demonstrated “the absurdity of PETA’s baseless lawsuit.” He added that “SeaWorld remains the standard for zoological stewardship of marine animals and we reject any challenge to the conditions and quality of care for these remarkable animals.”
PETA spokesperson said that “the inevitable day when all animals will be free from enslavement for human amusement. Today’s decision does not change the fact that the orcas who once lived naturally wild and free, are today kept as slaves by SeaWorld.”
The most interesting thing about this story from a Newsnibbles perspective is what constitutes a “person” under the Constitution. If, as Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney asserts “Corporations are people too” then why can’t whales be people too?
Wikipedia tells us that:
“Killer whales are highly social; some populations are composed of matrilineal family groups which are the most stable of any animal species.[5] Their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviours, which are often specific to a particular group and passed across generations, have been described as manifestations of culture.”
So they are socialised, have language and work co-operatively. Unfortunately for them, they do not currently conform to what is considered a human being, or a corporation, so their status is pending.
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