Posted on 11/07/2019 10:11:43 AM PST by RideForever
An orangutan named Sandra, at the center of a landmark ruling in Argentina that said she is a "non-human person" entitled to some of the same rights as humans, is making her way to a Florida sanctuary where great apes enjoy those privileges without benefit of a court order.
Once Sandra is there, the 33-year-old orangutan will have the company of others in her species for the first time in many years. Sandra left her solitary world at a zoo in Buenos Aires in late September and is currently in Kansas, where she'll remain in quarantine until she's cleared to join the 52 orangutans and chimpanzees living at the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida. There, Sandra will be able to lead a more social life in a facility designed with arboreal orangutans' needs in mind.
Orangutan is a word from the Malay and Indonesian languages that means "man of the forest." Orangutans, found in the wild only on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo, spend most of their lives in trees. At the Center for Great Apes, Sandra will be able to travel through an intricate network of above-ground tunnels to the 11 different areas where orangutans live on the more-than 100-acre site.
For the first time in her life, Sandra "will have the opportunity to go to different habitats," said Patti Ragan, who founded the Wauchula sanctuary a few years after developing an appreciation for the species' quiet, gentle nature while volunteering for a rehabilitation project for wild orangutans in 1984. "It will be her choice."
Temporarily living at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, Sandra won't move to Florida until she is cleared for transfer in a battery of tests for tuberculosis, hepatitis and others required by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sandra's arrival in Florida will be quiet and without media fanfare, said Ragan, who has received dozens of requests from news organizations wanting to film the orangutan's arrival.
"It's a serious thing to get her settled," Ragan said. "It's about Sandra." 'Our Obligation To Respect Them'
Her sanctuary has become a model for others caring for great apes rescued from research laboratories, pet owners and the entertainment industry. It's the only one in the Americas accredited for orangutans, and Argentine Judge Elena Liberatori was clear Sandra "spend the rest of her life in a more dignified situation" in her 2015 order releasing Sandra from a Buenos Aires zoo that gave the ape non-human personhood.
"With that ruling I wanted to tell society something new, that animals are sentient beings and that the first right they have is our obligation to respect them," Liberatori told The Associated Press.
Sandra's journey to Florida began in 2014, when she was recognized by Argentine courts as a "non-human person" illegally deprived of freedom. Animal rights activists, decrying the conditions at the Buenos Aires zoo, had filed a habeas corpus petition — a document typically used to challenge the legality of a person's detention or imprisonment.
The ruling was supposed to secure Sandra's release from a basketball court-sized concrete cell at the 140-year-old Buenos Aires zoo, but she never was moved.
Or Florida woman?
My sources in Florida have told me that the orangutan has already registered as a Democrat, and has successfully applied for welfare benefits. Ain’t America great!
Looking for the gorilla his dreams, so they can make a chimp off the old block.
Oh stop it. This is a beautiful chimp and I’m glad she’s protected.
Orange Female - good. Orange Man - bad.
Please don’t report me to PETA. I was just kidding around. We all gotta laugh sometimes.
Some wackos have proposed giving animals rights. This will fire them up and they will be demanding that all animals have rights.
What next?
Marriage between orangutans and humans?
Full voting rights for apes?
An ape running for president? “First Simian President”?
Class action suit: cows against McDonalds.
It’s insane out there and getting insaner.
Yes, it’s good to care for animals.
But, as you said, we gotta have some fun with the Democrats.
"Dr. Zaius, welcome to The View."
My cat DaisyJane sent a tweet to our county registrar who was reminding people to vote. :
“Mom voted by mail days ago. I was hoping to find a ballot in the mail addressed to me, but ...no. If cats all banded together in our own party, we’d easily take over the place.
DaisyJane the Kitten
(Free mice for everyone!!!)”
DaisyJane would have been a better mayor than the news reader the people elected. Nice woman, but has no clue how to be a public official—
I got these Japanese tourists coming and I've got an idea for a hotel.......
Karl Farbman designed some homes around here. They certainly are breathtaking.
Excuse me, but if this orangutan has human rights, he or she will just have to wait on line with other persons having human rights wanting to come to this country, or else be deported as an illegal alien.
What? Hillary’s back in the country?
Smart ape. Moving to a state without an income tax.
Has she been to a Popeyes recently to savor the new Fried Chicken sammich?
I am too. Kindness yo animals.
Here come the angry flamers with variety of other issues
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