The Treecat Rights Bill was a bill designed to enforce the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, which assured certain rights for the treecats of Sphinx, recognizing them as sentient beings.
History[]
In the eyes of the Sphinx Forestry Service and most Sphinxians, the Ninth Amendment was intended to recognize treecats as sentient beings on all of the Star Kingdom's worlds. However, certain political and economic interests took the position that the human inability to accurately measure their actual sentience with "demonstrable, replicable precision" meant their sapience was no more than a legal fiction. Moreover, it was argued that since the Ninth Amendment referred specifically to their status on Sphinx, it did not apply to their status on Manticore or Gryphon.
No one thought to test that aspect of the amendment for over thirty T-years after ratification, but in 107 AL, the Richtman Corporation, a Manticoran front for the infamous Mesan conglomerate Manpower Incorporated tried to get their hands on the 'cats and their suspected (at the time) empathic and telepathic abilities by bribing the Gryphon government into passing a referendum to revoke the Ninth Amendment. The attempt failed, and a journalist eventually discovered the Mesan involvement. The discussion, however, continued.
King Roger II orginally opposed the bill, but changed his mind after a treecat, Seeker of Dreams, had saved the life of his daughter Adrienne and bonded with her.[1] (HHA2.2: WPD)
References[]
- ↑ The bill was likely passed some time in the later half of Roger II's reign, in the 1550s or 1560s PD.