PETA Global Issue 2

I can readily imagine a future in which ordinary citizens, moved by respect for animals and fear that we dehumanize ourselves by accepting widespread cruelty, look back with horror on the ways in which we now treat some of these noble creatures.” PETA prevailed when SeaWorld sought permission from the California Coastal Commission to expand its orca display. Shortly after PETA attorney Jared Goodman met with the commissioners and gave an impassioned argument during the public hearing, the commission ruled that the expansion would be permitted only if the company stopped breeding or importing any new orcas. SeaWorld then announced that it would stop the breeding. The PETA legal team’s lawsuit to force the city of Pasadena to turn over public records (and pay PETA’s legal fees) flushed out a SeaWorld spy who was trying to pose as an animal rights activist in an attempt to incite illegal activities. The clumsy attempt blew up in SeaWorld’s face when PETA outed the spy to the media.

Another trailblazing case seeks to have Naruto, a wild macaque, declared the owner of his internationally famous “monkey selfie” photographs.

C orporate Counsel magazine named the PETA Foundation’s legal team among the Best Legal Departments of 2017 – and with good reason. From the landmark 13th Amendment case Tilikum v. SeaWorld that challenged the enslavement of orcas kept at SeaWorld to using the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) to gain more protection for captive wildlife and overturning laws restricting the gathering of eyewitness footage inside laboratories, PETA’s attorneys use every strategy they can to benefit animals. Despite the might and money driving the animal-abusing corporations that PETA targets, its lawyers set precedents – and the cases they take on send ripples through the global legal community. In the SeaWorld case, PETA's general counsel Jeff Kerr argued that Corky, Kasatka, Katina, Tilikum, and Ulises were kidnapped from their homes and families by force, locked up, put to work, and never allowed to leave, which is the very definition of involuntary servitude. Although the judge didn’t see the amendment as the remedy to orca captivity, their plight was splashed all over the news and heard in open court, and future generations will look back on this case as one that broke legal ground. Legal scholars supported PETA’s precedent-setting case. Harvard professor Laurence H. Tribe wrote: “It seems to me no abuse of the Constitution to invoke it on behalf of nonhuman animals cruelly confined for purposes of involuntary servitude. To the contrary, Pictured from left to right: Brittany Peet, John Seber, Emily von Klemperer, Jeffrey Kerr, Katherine Beasley, Corey Mishler

Another trailblazing case seeks to have Naruto, a wild macaque, declared the owner of his internationally

famous “monkey selfie” photographs, which he took by looking at his own reflection in the camera’s lens, making various faces, and clicking the shutter. In US federal court, PETA’s attorneys argued that the US Copyright Act doesn’t limit authorship exclusively to humans. If PETA prevails, it will be the first time that a nonhuman animal has been declared a property owner rather than a piece of property. Law schools are abuzz discussing this innovative case. that challenged the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s secret and illegal issuance of hundreds of ESA permits to circuses, roadside zoos, and other animal exploiters. Such facilities must now follow ESA requirements. PETA is determined to liberate captive chimpanzees, and its lawyers are helping to achieve that goal. One Alabama roadside zoo kept a chimpanzee named Joe isolated for nearly two decades. But not wanting PETA’s lawsuit to proceed, it settled, with an agreement that prevented the facility’s owner from ever possessing a chimpanzee again and allowed Joe to be transferred to an accredited sanctuary, where he’s now thriving. The roadside zoo has since closed, and its owner later pleaded guilty to 14 charges of cruelty to animals. Taking on entrenched cruelty is what PETA’s attorneys do: The team won a lawsuit

Behind the Chimpanzee ‘Smile’ PETA’s legal team is suing the inaptly named Missouri Primate Foundation, which is actually nothing more than the filthy home of a woman named Connie Braun Casey, to win the release of all the chimpanzees being held there. This includes Connor, whose picture was used on those ubiquitous “grinning” (actually a fear grimace) chimpanzee greeting cards for years and can still be found on Hallmark stock. In response to an appeal from PETA, American Greetings Corporation announced that it would stop using Connor’s images.

Take Action Now Visit PETA.org/Hallmark to let Hallmark Cards know that chimpanzee abuse is no laughing matter.

Global 15