For the first time anywhere, an ape has received the same
basic rights as her human captors. The female orangutan, whose home is
the Buenos Aires Zoo, was the beneficiary on December 18 of the decision
by a high-level Argentine criminal appeals court.
The ruling will change forever the life of this hybrid of two
orangutan species—one from Borneo, the other from Sumatra—and may
ultimately spur the nascent movement to set free other animals living in
captivity.
In Argentina, at least, Sandra now has the right to life, liberty and
freedom from harm. “The ruling was historic because before a nonhuman
primate like Sandra was considered an object and therefore there was no
dispute about its captivity, says Andrés Gil Dominguez of the
*********** of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights in Argentina,
which filed a habeas corpus petition for Sandra, ********* that she had
been unjustifably denied her freedom.”
The court’s decision will lead to another proceeding on the
orangutan’s behalf to find a home outside the zoo’s cages where Sandra,
born in captivity in Germany in 1986, has lived for the last 20 years.
The Argentine justice system will now convene a committee of experts to
find a sanctuary or another home for Sandra, as long as the aging orang
is healthy enough to travel elsewhere.
Sandra’s case began when a nongovernmental organization filed for her
habeas corpusin November, an unsuccessful petition that was later heard
by the appeals court. Interest in procuring the orang’s freedom dates
back to 2012 when a previous administration at the Buenos Aires Zoo, led
by zoologist Claudio Bertonatti, had considered the possibility of
sending the ape to a sanctuary but never took any action.
Sandra’s case will likely energize other legal efforts for other
animals—in particular, 17 chimpanzees in zoos throughout Argentina.
“Considering that they are very close to human primates, it is an
absurdity that they are still in captivity in prison," says
primatologist Aldo Giúdice of the University of Buenos Aires.
Before Sandra’s case other legal claims were filed for zoo primates
in the Argentine provinces of Córdoba, Black River, Santiago del Estero
and Entre Rios. Outside of Argentina there was a case in 2005 for a
chimpanzee, Suiça, in the zoo in San Salvador, Brazil, but the animal
died before the case could be adjudicated. In 2012 People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was unsuccessful in invoking the
U.S. Constitution’s 13th Amendment abolishing slavery and involutnary
servitude to gain freedom for orcas in captivity.
In 2013 the Nonhuman Rights Project initiated three legal claims on
behalf of four chimpanzees in New York State. Initially rejected, the
cases are in the midst of appeals. "With our claims, we are looking for
imprisoned nonhuman animals to be returned to their natural
environment,” says Steven Wise, president of the organization, which
counts renowned British primatologist Jane Goodall as a member. “If
that’s not possible, we will try to send them to a suitable sanctuary.
The groundswell of support for freeing animals grows out of 40 years
of primate research. "Studies such as those by Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall
and other scientists helped to position the great apes as people,”
Giúdice says. "Seeing them in zoos today recalls human exhibits from
other regions of the world in the World’s Fairs in Paris in the 19th
century.”
“Scientific research,” he adds, “has shown that they are sentient
beings with reason, self-consciousness and individuality. We cannot be
accomplices and let them suffer in prison.”