# PETA to sue Sea World for slavery **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 28, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027 "2011-10-28T00:43:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/102 "2011-11-02T13:24:40Z")
Any update on the suit? I would hope the courts would punish PETA for their idiocy. Surely they should be required to pay Sea World’s legal fees. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/103 "2011-11-02T13:27:22Z")
Not in America, Jack. Absent a statute to the contrary (none of which will apply here), everyone pays their own legal fees. PETA will be required to pay Sea World’s _costs_ once the suit is dismissed, but unless PETA and/or its attorneys _know_ the suit is frivolous (they probably do, but it’s really hard to prove) they won’t be paying Sea World’s attorneys’ fees. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/104 "2011-11-02T21:52:44Z")
> [@ruthevans41](#): > > . . . But even I do not approve of them keeping Orcas in chlorine filled water tanks. . . . This is the first I’d ever heard of this. What is the level of chlorination? (I’ve been in the front row at the Shamu show at Sea World, and have been thoroughly doused with water from the tank, and, far as I could tell, it tasted more like sea-water than like swimming-pool water. But I obviously didn’t have the lab equipment with me to detect or measure chlorine levels.) Trinopus ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/105 "2011-11-03T02:39:26Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Neither do I. And I suspect that you don’t either. Maybe. But it’s our choice. It’s not theirs. Pets are enslaved animals. There’s no denying it. The issue is whether enslavement of vanity pets by humans is an acceptable practice or not. ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/106 "2011-11-03T02:45:24Z")
> [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](#): > > So, your calling pet owners animal abusers? I have several pets, and I take offence to that. Your choice. No living thing chooses to be enslaved and prescribe their life to the command and subservience to a human. ---
**Author:** ![vaguepretension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ba8739/32.png) [@vaguepretension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vaguepretension)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/107 "2011-11-03T03:13:36Z")
aren’t there more important things in the world than saving a couple of fucking baby orcas? why doesn’t peta donate their considerable funds to saving children in africa or helping the deaf or people that \*\*actually need help \*\*instead of crusading to protect animals who dont give a fuck that no one gives a fuck about? i’m sorry, but there are more important things in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/108 "2011-11-03T03:19:50Z")
> [@vaguepretension](#): > > aren’t there more important things in the world than saving a couple of fucking baby orcas? why doesn’t peta donate their considerable funds to saving children in africa or helping the deaf or people that \*\*actually need help \*\*instead of crusading to protect animals who dont give a fuck that no one gives a fuck about? i’m sorry, but there are more important things in the world. If those things you mentioned, like saving children in Africa, were considered important in our society, then the billions of $$ (with a “B”) paid every year in routine and advanced medical care for vanity pet animals should also be spent to alleviate suffering for the children of Africa, instead of supporting a multi-Billion $$ industry whose only purpose is is to gratify human egos of people who want to dominate other living things and keep them enslaved for their ego gratification. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/109 "2011-11-03T03:24:09Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > Pets are enslaved animals. There’s no denying it. The issue is whether enslavement of vanity pets by humans is an acceptable practice or not. You know, try as I have I have never gotten my dog to get off her lazy bum to pick cotton, or even the newspaper. She won’t even bark at suspicious strangers, though she’s very cliché about hating the mailman with a fierceness. All she ever does is knock fragile things over, raid the fridge and get her cute on for tummy rubs afterwards. Worst. Slave. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/110 "2011-11-03T03:34:04Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > You know, try as I have I have never gotten my dog to get off her lazy bum to pick cotton, or even the newspaper. Well, your pet didn’t choose to live dependent on you and your command. Humans have the ability to exploit other living things in any way they can. Owning pets is one of them. Just an aside, to put this in a political context (my fav), that’s what Libertarianism is all about – living beings should be allowed to enslave, and it’s the choice of the enslaved to fulfill that demand and be subservient to the enslavers – even to other species. Pet ownership is defining animals as objects and property to humans. That much is obvious. The question is whether it should be socially acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/111 "2011-11-03T04:08:37Z")
If pets are “enslaved,” then so are human children. I mean, making them do chores, wash the dishes, fold clothes from the dryer, without any choice in the matter, and no pay, and nowhere they can go… Slavery, I tell ya… Trinopus ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/112 "2011-11-03T04:10:59Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > If pets are “enslaved,” then so are human children. […] Fine. Make children and let them out your house any time you want, even before they leave the hospital when newborn. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/113 "2011-11-03T04:54:38Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > Fine. > > Make children and let them out your house any time you want, even before they leave the hospital when newborn. Our dog is allowed outside. Not that there’s really any allowing to it, because that dog just don’t give a fuck. Not a single one, not ever. She’s even figured door handles out, so she can (and does) go in and out as she pleases. The yard has no fence, no wire, no nothing. She could scarper any time she pleases. And considering the number of revolting things she’s brought back from such escapades, she doesn’t have any problem finding stuff to munch on by herself. She ain’t dependant on squat. But of course, right here there’s food, cushions, cuddles, central heating, cats to chase, the odd stolen wheel of cheese, no work, no violence, no disease, no pain, no stress and no fear. Except for thunderstorms, those freak her right out. Also vacuum cleaners for some reason. But besides that, it’s a pretty groovy life being a “slave”. \*I \*wouldn’t mind it. Life in the wilds ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s brutal, it’s unforgiving, and it’s short. ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/114 "2011-11-03T05:54:27Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Our dog is allowed outside. […] See? The “Our” and the “allowed” makes my point, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/115 "2011-11-03T06:01:21Z")
My dog is my dog the exact same way my friends are my friends. Do I own my friends ? Cause if so I think I got scammed for some of them 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/116 "2011-11-03T06:04:58Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > My dog is my dog the exact same way my friends are my friends. Do I own my friends ? Cause if so I think I got scammed for some of them 🙂 Really? Your friends depend on you to feed them and give them shelter? I didn’t think so. Pets are slaves. Just admit it. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/117 "2011-11-03T06:15:52Z")
I already told you my dog doesn’t depend on shit. I’d wager few dogs or cats ever do, really. Then you got all hung up on the grammar, and I showed you the grammar don’t mean as much as you’d like it to. And you know, now that I think about it, my SO does depend on me for food and shelter. She ain’t my slave either. “Pets are slaves” is a ridiculous, shrill exaggeration of a sentence that either grossly misrepresents the life of the average dog, or grossly understates the plight of the average slave. Just admit it. ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/118 "2011-11-03T06:22:37Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > “Pets are slaves” is a ridiculous, shrill exaggeration of a sentence that either grossly misrepresents the life of the average dog, or grossly understates the plight of the average slave. Just admit it. I admit that I misused the term “slave” when most people would rather apply it to human mistreatment against other humans, rather than human mistreatment against other living things. You already know your dog is subservient to you because that’s how he can survive. That’s goes for all pet owners, not just you. If an animal had a choice to live on its own or to be subject to a human’s ownership, then, at least, give humans the decent benefit of a doubt and acknowledge that enslaving an animal would not be what the animal would have chosen for their own existence. That much is true and irrefutable. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/119 "2011-11-03T07:10:52Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > If an animal had a choice to live on its own or to be subject to a human’s ownership, then, at least, give humans the decent benefit of a doubt and acknowledge that enslaving an animal would not be what the animal would have chosen for their own existence. If I could swap my life with my dog’s, I would in a New York minute. Not a care in the world, man. Plus I’d get to lick my own balls. I’d never leave the house. ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/120 "2011-11-03T07:40:12Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > If I could swap my life with my dog’s, I would in a New York minute. Not a care in the world, man. Plus I’d get to lick my own balls. I’d never leave the house. Pathetic attempt for a humorless analogy aside, the animal is still subjected to a human’s imposed compulsory possession. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027/121 "2011-11-03T07:58:01Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > If an animal had a choice to live on its own or to be subject to a human’s ownership, then, at least, give humans the decent benefit of a doubt and acknowledge that enslaving an animal would not be what the animal would have chosen for their own existence. > > That much is true and irrefutable. Cats are evil. That much is true and irrefutable. (I’ll spare the board from posting this 8-12 times, under the theory that repetition conveys truth.) Feral cats live much briefer lives than pet cats. In fact, animals in captivity tend to live longer than those in the wild. Aversion to hunger and predation is a pretty fundamental drive: it’s not surprisingly that dogs and cats don’t flee their …owners. I’m not so sure about caged birds. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-to-sue-sea-world-for-slavery/601027.md?page=7)