Animal Activists Use Oil Spill to Push for Wildlife’s Day in Court

According to the American Bar Association, a number of organizations have recently tried to sue under the Endangered Species Act on behalf of sea turtles who have died in the Gulf. In federal court, the groups sued to force BP into halting controlled burn operations meant to stem the spread of oil. In early July, BP and the Coast Guard agreed to allow environmental scientists to “observe” burn efforts to ensure the turtles would be removed from danger. In addition, the ABA reports that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has called on the attorneys general of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi to prosecute executives of BP on animal cruelty charges. ”The oil leak represents an example where tremendous pain and death are brought to individual animals,” Michigan State University law professor David S. Favre says. ”The law penalty has no easy way to deal with these individual deaths,” he says. This is something animal activists want changed and some are pushing for new laws that would extend legal rights and protections–usually reserved for humans–to animals. One of these activists is President Obama’s “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein. Sunstein has come under public scrutiny in the past for his controversial views surrounding “rights” for livestock, pets and wildlife. “[T]here should be extensive regulation of the use of animals in entertainment, scientific experiments, and agriculture,” Sunstein wrote at the University of Chicago in 2002...more