Ape in Argentina granted human rights

In the eyes of Argentina's courts, female orangutan Sandra is a person -- or at least worthy of rights and protections similar to those of a human being. As Andrés Gil Dominguez, spokesperson for the Association of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights in Argentina, puts it: she's no longer just an "object" in the eyes of the law. It's the first time an animal has been granted expansive basic rights on par with a human. The decision was handed down by a high-level criminal appeals court in Buenos Aires last month; it's expected to spur action on some 17 similar cases, filed by animal rights activists on behalf of some 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," primatologist Aldo Giudice, a researcher at the University of Buenos Aires, told the Scientific American. "Scientific research has shown that they are sentient beings with reason, self-consciousness and individuality," Giudice said. "We cannot be accomplices and let them suffer in prison." A new hearing will soon be held to determine where -- in the best interests of an orangutan who's only known the confines of the Buenos Aires Zoo for the last 20 years -- Sandra should live out the rest of her days...more