Sandra Orangutan Declared a Person With a Right to Freedom

In a most welcomed landmark decision, an Argentine court has ruled that the Buenos Aires zoo has to release Sandra, an orangutan, to a sanctuary, because during 20 years of confinement she has suffered “unjustified confinement of an animal with proven cognitive ability” and “should be recognized as a person with a right to freedom.” The court said that Sandra should be transferred to a nature sanctuary because Sandra is a “‘non-human person'” which (sic; Sandra should be referred to who) has some basic human rights.” Intelligence and the ability to suffer are reasons to confer personhood to a nonhuman animal.

This is very important news. According to AFADA (Association of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights) lawyer Paul Buompadre, “This opens the way not only for other Great Apes, but also for other sentient beings which (sic) are unfairly and arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in zoos, circuses, water…