LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
Sandra the orangutan deserves some dignity so ruled a court in Argentina recently. The ape, who was born in captivity in Germany, has spent the last 20 years in a zoo in Buenos Aires. But Sandra is shy and has been known to cover her head with a cloth to deflect the curious gazes of zoo visitors. Animal rights lawyers argued that Sandra was a person, if not in the biological sense, then at least philosophically. That she should be considered a nonhuman person. The court agreed that Sandra deserves at least some legal rights and was being illegally detained at the zoo. If there is no appeal, Sandra will be transferred to a sanctuary in Brazil where she will enjoy greater freedom and privacy. An animal rights lawyer told La Nacion newspaper this opens the way not only for other great apes, but also for other sentient beings, which are being unfairly deprived of their liberty in zoos, circuses, water parks and scientific labs. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.