Argentine Court Rules Orangutan Is a "Non-Human Person"

First time accepted submitter Andrio writes In an unprecedented decision, an Argentine court has ruled that the Sumatran orangutan 'Sandra', who has spent 20 years at the zoo in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires, should be recognized as a person with a right to freedom. The ruling, signed by the judges unanimously, would see Sandra freed from captivity and transferred to a nature sanctuary in Brazil after a court recognized the primate as a "non-human person" which has some basic human rights. The Buenos Aires zoo has 10 working days to seek an appeal." A similar case involving chimpanzees failed to provide "non-human person" status here in the U.S. earlier this month.

Comments

Re:The usual nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

To eat, fuck, collect welfare and vote left, like countless human monkeys are doing.

Re:Monkey Business

[jedidiah]

She's still just an inmate. She's still being held against her will and being treated as a sub-human. The conditions might not even be that much better.

That all boils down to how primitive zoos are in Brazil.

Even if she were due some "big fat settlement" in a manner similar to a wrongfully convicted criminal, she still is in no position to manage it. Trying to pretend that she's a person really doesn't change this.

She has had no say in this process.