Animal Abusers Should be Stripped of Personhood

January 7, 2010

Animal Abusers Should be Stripped of

Personhood

January 7th, 2010

Dolphins - Do they really want to be people?

It seems that the nicest thing we can say about an animal is that it is a

person. I don't know about you, but I find this a bit

species-centric. For years,

the Great Ape Project has

been advocating for personhood for chimpanzees, gorillas, and other

non-human great apes. Now scientists are suggesting that

dolphins be granted non-human person status.

I know that the reasons for wanting this status are largely legal. The

only people considered human by law are people and corporations. Wait.

Corporations are people, but chimpanzees aren't? Well, yes, by law,

corporations are sort of people; while dolphins, chimpanzees and other

animals are non-people. And only people have rights in court.

So, as the SHAC folks found out, you can go to jail for sticking it to a

corporation, but you can do anything you want to animals from eating them

to enslaving them, as long as you’re not intentionally cruel about it,

from your point of view. Unless you’re planning to eat them, then you can

be intentionally cruel since food animals are usually except from most

cruelty laws.

Cages crammed full of not people.

So given this fucked up state of laws, why would a dolphin or chimpanzee

want to be a person? I wouldn't. I'd just want to be left alone. Few

animals have benefited by their associations with people, and billions

and billions have suffered and died. Are we so deluded as a species to

believe that animals are afflicted with some Stockholm syndrome-like

disorder that makes them want to be like their oppressors?

While I favor granting legal personhood to animals, I am far more

inclined to denying personhood to those who abuse animals.

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