Armed with an iPad and a letter of support from an Oscar-winning film director, Remus Cernea is pushing a cause that he acknowledges few of his fellow Romanian lawmakers care about: giving dolphins the same rights as humans.

The 39-year-old politician introduced a bill in parliament last week that would recognize the marine mammals as "non-human persons," on account of their highly developed intelligence, personalities and behavior patterns.

The bill, which will be debated in the Romanian upper house in the coming weeks, would make humans and dolphins equal before the law. Dolphin killers would be given the same sentences as murderers of human beings.

The aim of the bill is to help protect Romania's indigenous dolphins in the Black Sea, Cernea said.

Cernea split from Romania's Green Party to be an independent MP last year. His constituency Constanta is on coastline where dolphins get entangled in fishing nets and are found dead in their dozens.

To back his cause, Cernea has received a letter of support from American filmmaker Louie Psihoyos, famed for 2009 documentary The Cove, about dolphin hunting in Japan. 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.

Reuters