Argentine zoo may be forced to release Sandra the orangutan after court rules she should have same rights to freedom as a human Ape was born in captivity and has lived for 20 years in Buenos Aires Zoo But animal rights campaigners argued it had a humans right to freedom They filed a habeas corpus petition - usually used for unjust jail terms Floodgates could reportedly open to similar cases in Argentinas courts Case comes days after U.S. campaigners lost similar appeal for a chimp By Dan Bloom for MailOnline and Reuters 22 December 2014 An orangutan which has spent its entire 29-year life in zoos could be freed within days after judges said it has the same rights as a person. Experts say the landmark ruling over Sandra, who was born in Germany and has lived in Buenos Aires Zoo for 20 years, could open the floodgates to thousands of similar cases across Argentina. Animal rights campaigners won Sandras freedom by filing a habeas corpus petition - a document more often used to challenge the legality of holding prisoners - in the capitals courts last year. Just like you: Sandra the orangutan could move to a sanctuary after winning a persons rights in Argentina They argued Sandra should not be treated as an object under the law but instead as a non-human person, because of her intelligence and complex way of thinking. A judge rejected the petition, but the campaigners appealed and won in Argentinas Criminal Appeals Court at the end of last week, according to national newspaper La Nación. Paul Buompadre, who arranged the case as part of Argentinas Association of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights (Afada), told the newspaper: This opens the way not only for other Great Apes, but also for other sentient beings which are unfairly and arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in zoos, circuses, water parks and scientific laboratories. The zoo has two weeks to seek an appeal in Argentinas Supreme Court before the ape is moved to a sanctuary, reportedly in Brazil. A spokesman for the Jardín Zoológico de Buenos Aires declined to comment to the Reuters news agency. Its head of biology Adrian Sestelo, however, accused the campaigners of unfairly comparing the animal to a human. Home: The ape has lived for the last 20 years in an enclosure at Jardín Zoológico de Buenos Aires (above) He told La Nación: When you dont know the biology of a species, to unjustifiably claim it suffers abuse, is stressed or depressed, is to make one of mans most common mistakes, which is to humanise animal behaviour. With a name meaning forest man, orangutans are often cited alongside chimpanzees and bonobos as humankinds closest genetic relatives, sharing around 97 per cent of our DNA. Native to Malaysia and Sumatra, the red-haired animals are severely endangered with numbers dropping from 230,000 a century ago to fewer than 50,000 today. Of those, 41,000 are Bornean orangutans and just 7,500 are Sumatran orangutans, which the World Wildlife Fund says are critically endangered. The ruling has come just days after U.S. campaigners failed in an almost identical bid to gain human-like rights for a chimpanzee. Sandra the orangutan is filmed with her baby in Buenos Aires Parallel case: U.S. activists have failed in a bid to gain the same rights for a chimp named Tommy, pictured The Nonhuman Rights Project vowed to push its case further after a New York state appeals court ruled Tommy, a privately-owned chimp, could not be described as a legal person. Executive director Natalie Prosin previously told MailOnline: Under U.S. law animals count as things, not people. There are animal protection laws but thats not the same as giving rights to animals. At the moment theyre just the same as a table or a chair. What were trying to do is have the court grant legal person rights so our chimpanzee plaintiff can enjoy one simple human right. The last time we saw him he was in a cage in a shed on a trailer park. He basically lives in solitary confinement.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 04:55:46 +0000
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