Be careful of what you post on facebook, people. You might just get sued for it!
In a bizarre case in New Jersey, U.S.A, an animal shelter, Liberty Humane Society, has filed a defamation suit against the creators and posters of the facebook fan page "Liberty Humane Society Uncensored". The shelter has been criticized on the page by its ex-volunteers, for the recent euthanization of 26 dogs. The shelter defended itself saying that the dogs were too sick or too dangerous for adoption.
Should humans have the power to decide whether another living being lives or dies? Should animals be allowed the freedom to make that decision? Animals don't exactly "make decisions" and nor are they capable of suicide, so is it okay for humans to do that for them?
I'm not sure. It seems the shelter is doing too much to prove it didn't do any wrong. Suing a facebook page? Isn't a facebook page your own page, where you could say anything you want to?
America is the lawsuit capital of the world, considering the sheer number and causes of lawsuits filed there. So it isn't that surprising that the case was filed, but the fact that facebook comes under the legal scanner. And this is not the first facebook defamation case.
So the next time you go posting things like "Osama bin Laden is a bad man, a murderer!", think again. Because the next thing you know, you're being sued by him for defamation of character.
Nice blog u have here Ira. The essence that comes out of it makes me feel suffocated. But I think enough has been already said about our freedom of speech or expression. I would rather be interested in the freedom of those 26 dogs who were killed in the name of mercy killing. Nature denied the animals of speech. Nature chose us for this gift and look how we have taken advantage of it. The gift that was meant to dissolve differences has created borders. While animals they can't speak but their eyes can. But we are not capable of reading them because of our shallowness. We have become so self-obsessed that we dun care about anyone else anymore. I read this story by Mahadevi Verma where she says that may be if humans too would have been denied of speech a lot of problems would have never existed. I think that might have really made us sensitive to every other creature on earth...
ReplyDeleteThank you Manjiri. I agree with you. The animals were denied speech while we humans were gifted with it. And yet, we complain when our freedom of speech is even slightly constrained - like this facebook case. Facebook is a very advanced mode of freedom of speech and expression - 2 things that we take for granted now. Maybe we should be more responsible when exercising it.
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