A recent article I found on The Guardian website discusses a rise of campaigners who believe that dolphins and whales should be granted rights on account of their intelligence. This relates with the arguments made in Nature comparing human and animal consciousnesses. A group of scientists and ethicists argues there is sufficient evidence of the marine mammals’ intelligence, self-awareness and complex behaviour to enshrine their rights in legislation. They declare for the animals to be protected under international law. Tom White, director of the Centre for Ethics and Business at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, says:
“Dolphins are non-human persons. A person needs to be an individual. And if individuals count, then the deliberate killing of individuals of this sort is ethically the equivalent of deliberately killing a human being. The captivity of beings of this sort, particularly in conditions that would not allow for a decent life, is ethically unacceptable, and commercial whaling is ethically unacceptable.”
The full article can be found at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/21/whales-dolphins-legal-rights
