Civil Rights Lawyers Argue That Park Enslaves Killer Whales in Violation of Their Constitutional Rights
For Immediate Release:
February 3, 2012
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
San Diego, Calif. -- Plaintiffs Tilikum, Katina, Kasatka, Ulises, and Corky—orcas currently confined to suffocatingly small concrete tanks at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, and San Diego—will be heard on Monday through their attorneys in the first-ever case to assert that a constitutional right should extend to nonhuman animals. A legal team led by Jeffrey Kerr, general counsel to PETA, as well as PETA's outside litigation counsel, precedent-setting civil rights attorney Philip Hirschkop—who argued and won the landmark Loving v. Virginia case that declared unconstitutional the laws banning interracial marriage—will argue that SeaWorld is holding the orcas against their wills in violation of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution's ban on slavery and involuntary servitude. The suit was brought in the orcas' behalf by PETA, three marine-mammal experts, and two former SeaWorld trainers.
When: Monday, February 6, 10:30 a.m.
Where: U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, 940 Front St., San Diego
"Nothing in the 13th Amendment excludes these extremely social, sentient, and intelligent beings from its protections, and SeaWorld's treatment of these five orcas absolutely defines slavery," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "The five plaintiffs were violently seized from their ocean homes and families to serve their 'masters' and are being made to do cheap tricks during an entire lifetime of privation."
The legal team representing the orcas filed the lawsuit on October 25, 2011, and on January 13, 2012, filed a brief opposing SeaWorld's motion to dismiss the case. The brief cited more than 200 years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent to establish that, under the 13th Amendment, the orcas' species does not deny them the right to be free. Orcas in the wild work cooperatively, form complex relationships, communicate using distinct dialects, and swim up to 100 miles every day. At SeaWorld, they are denied everything that's natural and important to them and are forced to swim in circles in small, barren concrete tanks and perform tricks for a reward of dead fish.
The hearing is open to the public. For more information, please visit PETA.org.