What If Animals Are People (Legally)?
Attention all of you students who are interested in the study and care of all types of animal friends, and also those of you who merely think them tasty: legislation has just been proposed in the People’s Congress of the New City Government that would ban the capture, hunting, domestication, use, consumption and trade of all sentient creatures. It will also create a “bill of rights for all sentient non-humans”. Of course, depending on what animals are defined as “sentient”, this could have an impact on the menus of many, not to mention ending the brisk business of hunters bringing in bush meat and other mob-derived items from the Outlands.
Mycroft has informed me that there was once — in 2022 to be exact — a State Supreme Court case on the topic in New York just before the Cataclysm. This case concerned the freedom of Happy, an Asian elephant at the Bronx Zoo. Her advocates claimed that she is a “non-human person” and should therefore have her freedom. She can, after all, recognize herself in a mirror, which most human children cannot do until they are older than one year old: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/07/the-elephant-in-the-courtroom
A similar case was tried some years after the Cataclysm not far from here. It was pressed by the estate of Reuben, a deceased pet pig, whose lawyer alleged wrongful death at the hands of his owner Jesse in an unfortunate incident involving a Wither Storm. The lawyer claimed that Reuben evidenced being more intelligent than his owner, but, being an animal with no recognized rights, was coerced into a fatal adventure. The judge in the case dismissed the litigation saying that Reuben had no standing as an animal to sue a human, however, some observers of the court have raised the suspicion that the judge was actually just extremely fond of bacon.
Those who may want to ponder the matter of animal sentience more deeply may wish to peruse the story of Balaam’s Donkey and the curious reference to the final destination of animal spirits in a passage of Ecclesiastes.
Play
TOYS: Set up and play a story about animal sentience and rights or animal keeping/hunting.
GAME: Pokemon raises interesting questions about sentient animal rights. Play Pixelmon or Pokemon GO.
POP: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home includes the theme of sentience in animals and their rights. Free Willy is another one. Both involve whales.
Research
LOOKUP: What are scientists discovering about animal sentience?
LOOKUP: Who are the different people on the two sides of the animal rights debate related to animal sentience? Check out “Japanese whaling” and “indigenous whaling” for two pro-hunting groups.
MAP: Read the article and Create A Google Map of all the places laws about animal sentience are being passed and involved zoos and sanctuaries.
Project
IRL-POL/IRL-CIV: Research who is involved on either side of the animal sentience/rights issue and find out what you can do to help. Involve others in your solution.
IRL-CUL: Create art, a game, or a presentation about your position on animal sentience and rights.
SQ-POL: What if New City legislated no hunting/farming/keeping of sentient animals? We could create a backstory about this and maybe a quest (like rescuing dolphins).
Photo: Mike Prince “Asian Elephants (24143634216).jpg” Wikimedia Commons https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asian_Elephants_(24143634216).jpg CC by SA 2.0
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