Romanian politician, Remus Cernea is pushing a cause that he acknowledges his fellow lawmakers care little about: giving dolphins the same rights as humans.
The 39-year-old activist politician introduced a bill in the Romanian parliament last week that would recognise the marine mammals as “non-human persons”, on account of their highly developed intelligence, personalities and behaviour patterns.
The aim of the bill is to help protect Romania’s indigenous dolphins in the Black Sea, Cernea said. It would also add the country’s voice to a global movement against dolphin killings.
But gathering domestic support may be tough in a year when Romania goes to the polls twice, first in the European elections in May and later to vote for a new president. Animal rights will have to find space alongside issues such as corruption and raising living standards and public services in the European Union’s second poorest country.
“At this moment, I have no support,” Cernea told Reuters during a visit to the city of Constanta on the Black Sea coast.
“This law asks you to make a huge step, philosophically speaking, to understand and to accept that somehow there is another species which is quite similar as we are,” he added.
They’ve got to be kidding, right! Non-humans with human rights? Surely this is a contradiction in terms? What about whales? Where would this stop? BTW, Romania only has 225km of coastline!
Source: Reuters
Words, By George! 