Should orcas have the same rights as people?
Posted August 12, 2019 5:15 am.
In today’s Big Story podcast, there are now 73 southern native killer whales left in the world. Three more died last week. There are now so few of them, we know them by family, and by name. When a mother carried her dead calf with her as she swam for 17 days last year, the world felt her pain and mourned with her as though she was a person. So … what if she was?
One of the proposals to help this vanishing species involves legally granting them ‘personhood’, which would convey upon them the same rights people have to live without fear from other humans. It seems insane, except it’s been done before. It seems unwieldy and unworkable … and it very well might be. And it would need buy-in from a couple of levels of government. So will it happen? It’s very possible, and if it does the Trans Mountain pipeline might face another huge obstacle — “people’s” lives might be at risk.
GUEST: Lyndsie Bourgon, The Walrus
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