제프피 커 동물애호단체 사무총장이 산디아고 연방재판소앞에서 씨월드에 대한 소송에 대해 설명하고 있다.
[산디아고=AP/KNS뉴스통신] 6일 미국 연방재판소는 미국 사상 최초로 동물들도 인간과 같은 노예제도를 금지하는 헌법상의 권리를 누릴 수 있는가를 심사하는 청문회를 개최했다.
동물애호협회는 올랜도의 놀이공원에서 범고래들이 매일 탱크 안에서 곡예를 하도록 강요당하여 노예처럼 취급당하고 있다고 주장하는 소송을 제소한데 대해 산디아고 씨 월드가 소송을 기각하도록 요청하면서 청문회를 개최하게 되었다.
동물애호단체의 변호인은 “이 사건은 민권의 새로운 지평을 여는 것이다”라고 말했다.
씨 월드는 이 소송은 상식에 어긋나는 것이며 헌법에서 규정한 인간 간의 노예제도를 금지하는 미국 헌법 13 수정 조항에 위반하는 것이라고 주장했다.
(영문기사 원문)
Slavery protections for animals? Judge to decide
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge for the first time in U.S. history heard arguments Monday in a case that could determine whether animals enjoy the same constitutional protection against slavery as human beings.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller called the hearing in San Diego after Sea World asked the court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that names five orcas as plaintiffs in the case.
PETA claims the captured killer whales are treated like slaves for being forced to live in tanks and perform daily at its parks in San Diego and Orlando, Florida.
"This case is on the next frontier of civil rights," said PETA's attorney Jeffrey Kerr, representing the five orcas.
Sea World's attorney Theodore Shaw called the lawsuit a waste of the court's time and resources. He said it defies common sense and goes against 125 years of case law applied to the Constitution's 13th amendment that prohibits slavery between humans.
"With all due respect, the court does not have the authority to even consider this question," Shaw said, adding later: "Neither orcas nor any other animal were included in the 'We the people' ... when the Constitution was adopted."
Miller listened to both sides for an hour before announcing that he would take the case under advisement and issue his ruling at a later date. The judge raised doubts a court can allow animals to be plaintiffs in a lawsuit, and he questioned how far the implications of a favorable ruling could reach, pointing out the military's use of dolphins and scientists' experiments on whales in the wild.
Kerr acknowledged PETA faces an uphill battle but he said he was hopeful after Monday's hearing.
"This is an historic day," Kerr said. "For the first time in our nation's history, a federal court heard arguments as to whether living, breathing, feeling beings have rights and can be enslaved simply because they happen to not have been born human. By any definition these orcas have been enslaved here."
The issue is not about whether the animals have been subjected to abuse, the defense said. If the court were to grant orcas constitutional rights, Shaw warned the ruling would have profound implications that could impact everything from the way the U.S. government uses dogs to sniff out bombs and drugs to how zoos and aquariums operate.
"We're talking about hell unleashed," he said.
PETA said a ruling in its favor would only help to protect the orcas in the entertainment industry and other cases involving animals would have to be decided on their own merits.
Kerr said Sea World employees are in violation of the 13th amendment because their conduct is enslaving an intelligent, highly social species that suffers from its confinements in ways similar to what humans would experience.
Brushing animals off as property is the same argument that was used against African-Americans and women before their constitutional rights were protected, PETA says.
Shaw pointed out that argument does not translate because both women and African-Americans are people for which the Constitution was written to protect.
Miller did not specify when he would issue his ruling.
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