An Argentine court has ruled that an orangutan, named Sandra, has the basic rights of a 'non-human person' and can be freed from captivity.

The court declared that the 29-year-old Sumatran orangutan had been deprived of its freedom and can be released from the Buenos Aires Zoo and transferred to a sanctuary, local media reported on Sunday.

Like Us on Facebook

A writ of habeas corpus, a petition usually used by lawyers to question the legality of a person's detention, was filed in November by human rights campaigners in behalf of Sandra, who was born in 1986 in a German zoo before she was brought to Buenos Aires two decades ago.

Animal rights activists from the Association of Officials and Lawyers for Animal Rights (AFDA) claimed that Sandra has proven cognitive skills and should not be treated as a thing or object but a person.

"She has lived in captivity for 20 years and the point of today's measure is for her to overcome having been held in captivity and depression, for her to be in semi-free conditions in a sanctuary," the local media quoted AFADA lawyer Andres Gil Dominguez as saying.

"This opens the way not only for other great apes, but also for other sentient beings which are unfairly and arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in zoos, circuses, water parks and scientific laboratories," added another AFADA lawyer Paul Buompadre, as quoted by La Nacion newspaper.

If the Buenos Aires Zoo doesn't submit an appeal in 10 working days, Sandra could be transferred to a sanctuary in Brazil where she can have more freedom.

The case was not the first time the writ of habeas corpus was used to attempt to free animals held in captivity.

In New York, a privately-owned chimpanzee named Tommy was sought release through the same petition but was denied by a court, ruling that an animal is not entitled to the same rights as human beings.

A similar petition was filed in 2011 by another animal rights group trying to free five orca whales at a marine park, saying the animals were practically slaves. It was denied by a San Diego court.

Buenos Aires zoo head biologist Adrian Sestelo described orangutans as calm, solitary creatures. "When you don't know the biology of a species, to unjustifiably claim it suffers abuse, is stressed or depressed, is to make one of man's most common mistakes, which is to humanize animal behavior," he cautions.

Tagsorangutan, sandra, basic rights, capticity, argentine court