There Is Nothing So Uncommon As Common Sense

The wackos at PETA filed a lawsuit against SeaWorld a few days ago, claiming the whales there were being held as slaves.

Fortunately, there's a least one judge out there with a modicum of common sense.

Judge: SeaWorld's killer whales aren't 'slaves' — PETA lawsuit tossed

A federal judge in San Diego dismissed an unprecedented lawsuit seeking to grant constitutional protection against slavery to a group of orcas that perform at SeaWorld parks, saying the 13th amendment applies only to humans.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller stopped the case from proceeding two days after he became the first judge in U.S. history to listen to arguments in court over the possibility of granting constitutional rights for members of an animal species.

"As 'slavery' and 'involuntary servitude' are uniquely human activities, as those terms have been historically and contemporaneously applied, there is simply no basis to construe the Thirteenth Amendment as applying to non-humans," Miller wrote in his ruling.

Thank goodness that's over - for now. PETA has indicated it plans to take further action on the whales' behalf, but did not specify what it might do next.

If PETA had prevailed with the whales then there's no telling what they might have done next. Sought to free domestic animals kept as pets, perhaps?

We have a couple of mutts that don't do much but lay around, demand to get petted, and somehow turn one pound of dog food input into two pounds of processed dog food output. I doubt if they consider themselves slaves.

If anything, they are more likely to think of themselves as owners...