After 25 Years in 'Inadequate' Argentine Zoo, 33-Year-Old Orangutan Sandra Heads to Floridian Ape Sa
After 25 Years in 'Inadequate' Argentine Zoo, 33-Year-Old Orangutan Sandra Heads to Floridian Ape Sanctuary
ALMUDENA CALATRAVA / AP
12:32 PM ET
(BUENOS AIRES, Argentina) — Sandra shows little interest as she slowly shuffles past the structure of beams and ropes built for her to climb on inside her concrete enclosure in Argentina's capital. Outside are tall buildings and traffic that bear no resemblance to the lush forests where orangutans naturally live.
But the unstimulating, solitary life of the 33-year-old orangutan with gentle eyes and dark-red hair will take a turn Thursday when she leaves Buenos Aires for the United States. After a quarantine period in Kansas, she is expected to become the new resident of the Center for Great Apes in Florida, a sanctuary much better suited to her needs.
"There she will be able to spend the rest of her life in a more dignified situation," said Argentine judge Elena Liberatori, who in 2015 ruled that Sandra was legally not an animal but a non-human person who has rights, turning the orangutan who has only known limited concrete enclosures into a focus of world attention.
It has been a long journey for Sandra, who was born in a zoo in Germany and moved to Argentina a quarter century ago. She has lived most of her life in a basketball court-sized cell in the more-than-century-old Buenos Aires zoo, in conditions protested by animal rights groups as inadequate. Her release seemed possible in 2014 following a landmark court ruling that she was entitled to some legal rights enjoyed by humans and better living conditions. Then came Liberatori's ruling. Her release seemed nearer in 2016 when the Buenos Aires zoo closed its doors and officials said that hundreds of its animals would be set free as it was transformed into an eco-park.
More:
https://time.com/5687210/argentine-orangutan-florida-sanctuary/
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