Court in Buenos Aires to decide if Sandra the orangutan should be freed after landmark rights ruling

IN A FIRST for apes, a court is set to rule whether an orangutan can be set free from an Argentine zoo after it was granted the same basic rights as us.

21/09/2004 Sandra, a female orangutan, smells a flower at the Buenos Aires Zoo, as the spring season begins in the Southern hemisphere.

IN A FIRST for apes, an orangutan may be released from a zoo in Argentina after a court granted it the same basic rights as humans.

Sandra has been a resident of Buenos Aires Zoo for 21 years but a legal decision last December granted her rights as a “non-human subject”.

The landmark decision, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, was hailed by animal rights groups and could lead to Sandra finally leaving her cage after lawyers argued that keeping her there violated her rights.

In the wild ... An endangered Sumatran orangutan cradles her baby on a tree top nest in the forest of Bukit Lawang, Sumatra. Picture: Romeo Gacad/AFP

Court proceedings relating to her release restarted in Buenos Aires this week, The Independent reported.

The Association of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights (AFADA) wants the zoo to let the ape go free on the grounds that keeping her is a form of mistreatment.

The AFADA said this week’s hearing highlights a change in the way animal rights cases are approached, with an animal being treated as a sentient being rather than as a passive object.

US case ... PETA brought an unsuccessful case invoking the US Constitution’s 13th Amendment abolishing slavery to gain freedom for orcas in captivity. Picture: Bizuayehu Tesfaye/AP

They hope it could spur a growing movement to get animals released from captivity.

In 2012 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) brought an unsuccessful case invoking the US Constitution’s 13th Amendment abolishing slavery to gain freedom for orcas in captivity.