An Orangutan called ‘Sandra’, which has been in the Argentine Zoo for 20 years, has been granted the same legal rights as a human and will be moved to the US animal sanctuary in Florida.
Lawyers won a landmark appeal for Sandra in 2014, arguing that she was being detained in Buenos Aires illegally.
According to AP news, Judge Elena Liberatori, who has a picture of Sandra, said that she wanted her ruling to send a message; “That animals are sentient beings and that the first right they have is our obligation to respect them.”
The 33-year-old Orangutan had spent much of his life in solitary seclusion and oftentimes avoided the public. She also had a daughter in 1999, but the baby was sold to an animal park in China.
The ruling found her to be Argentina’s first “non-human person, with the right to liberty” which has brought her international fame, and set a precedent for apes to be legally deemed people rather than property.