Orangutan extended human right to freedom in Argentina

Monday, December 22, 2014, 2:43 PM - In what is a first for the world, an ape is being considered a person by the judicial system in Argentina.

The ape in question is a 28-year-old female Sumatran orangutan named Sandra and has spent all her life in captivity. For the last 20 years, she's lived in a zoo in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires.

The local chapter of the Asociacion de Funcionarios y Abogados por el Derecho de los Animales is the animal rights group responsible for Sandra's defence and had asked for the judge overseeing their case to extend a Habeas Corpus to Sandra, arguing that her freedom had been taken from her illegally and as a "non-human person" with evident and extensive cognitive abilities, she should be extended the same basic rights as the rest of us.

The judge, much like many others that had been presented with that argument across the world, ruled against it, but after an appeal from Sandra's lawyers Argentina's Second Court agreed with the bid for Habeas Corpus.

While the Argentine Zoo has ten days to appeal that new decision, if they don't Sandra will be on her way to a sanctuary in Brazil, where she will live the rest of her days in much better conditions.

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Sandra was born in 1986 in a German zoo and arrived to the South American country in 1994. She initially lived with another orangutan and even gave birth to a child of her own, Shembira.

While many animal fans in the country rejoiced at the news, some laywers are less than excited.

"The argumentation was very vague and based on a precedent that doesn't specify what to do in these situation," Daniel Sabsay, Argentine constitutional law layer told La Nacion. "The decision implies the end of some animals being treated like objects and instead will be 'non-human people.' Private property will have to yield to the basic rights to life and freedom."

MUST-SEE: These foxes below are clearly enjoying their freedom