Sandra (born February 14, 1986, in

Rostock Zoo Rostock Zoo (German: ''Zoologische Garten Rostock'') is a zoo in the city of Rostock, founded in 1899. It covers 56 hectares and with 4,500 animals from 320 species, Rostock Zoo is the largest zoo on the German east coast. Rostock Zoo is studbook ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

) is an

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...

, currently living in the

Center for Great Apes The Center for Great Apes’ mission is to provide a permanent sanctuary for orangutans and chimpanzees who have been rescued or retired from the entertainment industry, from research, or from the exotic pet trade; to educate the public about c ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

after being moved from the

Buenos Aires Zoo The Buenos Aires Eco Park ( es, Ecoparque de Buenos Aires) is an park in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The former zoo, opened in 1888, contained 89 species of mammals, 49 species of reptiles and 175 species of birds, with a tot ...

in 2019. Sandra is a zoo-born, hybrid orangutan of the two separate species of Borneo and Sumatra orangutans. In Germany, Sandra, then called Marisa, was transferred to a second zoo in Germany ( Ruhr-Zoo), then transferred to Argentina on September 17, 1994. In the

the name of the orangutan was changed to Sandra. Sandra had a baby girl called Shembira or Gembira, who was born on March 2, 1999, and was transferred to Xixiakou Wild Animal Park, Rongcheng, Sandong, China in 2008. During the amparo court case in Buenos Aires in 2015, it was revealed that an attempt by the Buenos Aires zoo to mate Sandra with an orangutan named Max failed because Sandra preferred instead to sit outside in the rain and snow.

Legal status determinations

On December 18, 2014, Sandra was termed by the court in Argentina as a "subject of rights" in an unsuccessful

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

case regarding the release of the orangutan from captivity at the Buenos Aires zoo. The decision turning down the habeas corpus application also led to the court's direction to prosecute alleged cruelty by the zoo through the prosecutor's office in Buenos Aires in 2015. The brief "subject of rights" statement left the status of the orangutan Sandra as a "non-human being" uncertain legally, until on October 21, 2015
Justice Elena Amanda Liberatori ruled in an amparo case
with Sandra that the orangutan is "una persona no humana" or "a non-human person" and ordered the city of Buenos Aires to provide what is "necessary to preserve her cognitive abilities". A few days after the decision, both sides said they would appeal. Initially, it was reported widely in the media that Sandra was declared a "non-human person" by the court on December 18, 2014, but that was a legal interpretation by the association of lawyers for animal rights in Argentina, ALFADA, that was pursuing court cases on behalf of Sandra, and was not explicitly in the wording of the court statement, until Justice Liberatori interpreted the previous ruling in her decision. The judge said in her ruling that Sandra still would not have personhood rights like a human being. That decision that Sandra was a non-human person was reversed a year later by the appellate court of Buenos Aires. In most legal jurisdictions in the world, a non-human animal is considered an object without rights, or property capable of being owned, bought, and sold, not a subject with rights. In most jurisdictions, there is also a legal distinction between a "person" and a "human being." For instance, a corporation can be a legal "person" without being a "human being". In 2015, ALFADA pursued the release of Sandra from the Buenos Aires zoo and a legal decision to give her status as a "person" through an amparo application in court, which raised the issue of the legal status and rights of the orangutan under the Codigo Civil Argentino or Argentina Civil Code, under articles 30, 31, 32, 51, 52, 56, and 57. The civil code has two relevant categories, "personas de existencia visible" (visible existing persons), applied to corporeal entities such as minors and disabled persons, and "personas de existencia ideal" (ideal existing persons), applied to legal incorporeal entities such as a corporation given "person" status in the law. Article 51 defines "personas de existencia visible" as having "signos característicos de humanidad." There is no "non-human person" category in the code. On October 21, 2015, Justice Elena Liberatori ruled that a technical committee would issue a binding decision later on how Sandra would be accommodated with her new rights. That eventually would lead to Sandra's release to a sanctuary. On June 14, 2016, an appellate court in Buenos Aires reversed the ruling of Justice Liberatori that Sandra was a non-human person. In 2019, Sandra was transferred to the

Sedgwick County Zoo The Sedgwick County Zoo is an AZA-accredited wildlife park and major attraction in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Founded in 1971, with the help of the Sedgwick County Zoological Society, the zoo has quickly become recognized both nationally ...

in Kansas and put in quarantine for a month. On Nov. 5, 2019, she arrived at the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida. Sanctuary director Patti Regan said, "Sandra is very sweet and inquisitive. She was shy when she first arrived, but once she saw the swings, toys, and grassy areas in her new home, she went to explore."Center for Great Apes Welcomes Sandra to the Sanctuary
PR Newswire

Legal status determinations

References

Further reading