Tulane University National Primate Research Center<\/a>, Rhesus Macaques are placed within the Cercopithecidae family (Old World Monkeys), So, for simplicity, we\u2019ll refer to them as monkeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe gravamen of the lawsuit is that the federal defendants turned down PETA\u2019s request for a live-stream audiovisual feed of the monkeys in the laboratory.\u00a0 PETA claims that the monkeys are \u201cwilling speakers\u201d who \u201cregularly communicat[e]\u201d about their physical and psychological condition. \u00a0According to PETA\u2019s complaint, experts in monkey communication claim the ability to understand the information that the animal sounds, body posture, facial expression and other actions purportedly convey.\u00a0 PETA claims that denying it the ability to communicate with “fellow primates” violates PETA’s First Amendment rights, and PETA therefore wants the court to permanently enjoin the defendants from \u201cwithholding from PETA \u2026 access to the rhesus macaques\u2019 communications.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PETA\u2019s track record in opposing animal-based medical and mental health research is well-known. Thus, most of the complaint is devoted to describing the research that is performed, the conditions of the laboratory and in making PETA\u2019s overall case for the abolition of animal-based research. However, the First Amendment predicate for the case is extremely thin, if not nonexistent. PETA cites a number of cases to the effect that there is a First Amendment right to receive information even though the speaker may not, itself, have a First Amendment right. But PETA cites no case (and we are aware of none) holding that the sounds and body gestures of a monkey constitute speech that is protected under the First Amendment \u2013 whether it concerns the speaker\u2019s right to speak or the listener\u2019s right to receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PETA\u2019s complaint also pleads a denial of due process under the Fifth Amendment but is very vague on what \u201cproperty\u201d or \u201cliberty\u201d interest of PETA was allegedly violated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This isn\u2019t the first time that PETA and other animal rights groups have sought attention by trying to get a court to confer human rights on an animal, but very few of these efforts has succeeded. Thus, killer whales are not subject to the Thirteenth Amendment, elephants are not covered by the writ of habeas corpus, a Bengal tiger can\u2019t pursue a Freedom of Information Act request, humans don\u2019t have \u201cnext friend\u201d standing to pursue a copyright claim on behalf of a monkey or a bill of attainder claim on behalf of a barn owl, and dogs, birds and dugongs don\u2019t have standing in federal court to sue. PETA\u2019s current effort to have a federal court declare monkey speech protected by the First Amendment would clearly seem to be headed for a similar fate. Indeed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected an effort to invoke the First Amendment on behalf of \u201cBlackie the Talking Cat,\u201d an animal that allegedly \u201cspoke, for a fee, on radio and on television shows such as \u2018That\u2019s Incredible.\u2019\u201d Miles v. City Council of Augusta, Ga.<\/em>, 710 F.2d 1542, 1543 (11th Cir. 1983) (per curiam<\/em>). Affirming dismissal of the First Amendment claim, the court ruled that it \u201cwill not hear a claim that Blackie\u2019s right to free speech has been infringed. . . . [A]lthough Blackie arguably possesses a very unusual ability, he cannot be considered a \u2018person\u2019 and is therefore not protected by the Bill of Rights.\u201d Id<\/em>. at 1544 n.5. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Beach Boys wrote a song called \u201cPet Sounds.\u201d In a recently filed federal lawsuit, animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment Animals (\u201cPETA\u201d) claims that it has a First Amendment right to receive monkey sounds (as well as monkey movements). The lawsuit, filed on March 6, 2025 in the U.S. District Court for … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “PETA Claims First Amendment Right to Communicate with Monkeys”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,21,187,5,1084,101,45,1085],"ppma_author":[697],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-animal-law","tag-animal-rights","tag-first-amendment","tag-john-simpson","tag-monkey-speech","tag-people-for-the-ethical-treatment-of-animals","tag-peta","tag-rhesus-macaque"],"authors":[{"term_id":697,"user_id":317,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jmsimpson","display_name":"John M. Simpson","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2018\/06\/simpsonjohn-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}