With this appeal, General Attorney of Argentina, Julio Conte-Grand, published an article in the influential newspaper La Nación in which he criticizes the possibility that Judge Dr. Elena Amanda Liberatori recognizes Sandra, female orangutan who lives alone in Buenos Aires Zoo, with the basic rights of a non-human being and can be transferred to a Sanctuary, and would be no longer commercially exploited in exhibition in a zoo.

Professor Shawn Thompson, author of The Intimate Ape: Orangutans and The Secret Life of a Vanishing Species (2010), and a regular blog writer on the subject of great apes, gave a very good answer to the Argentine Prosecutor.

Professor Shawn integrates an Expert Committee which advises the judge in the case Sandra, which came into his hands by an order of Habeas Corpus of NGO AFADA. The NGO fights for the recognition of the basic rights of animals in our societies. The two other members of the committee, experts with many years of knowledge about orangutans, are: Leif Cocks, President of the NGO The Orangutan Project, and Gary Shapiro, founder of the NGO Orangutan Republic.

In Thompson’s response, he expressed his surprise over the entrance of a scholar of such importance in the controversy and is inclined to think that the case has touched a nerve, as the maximum voice of Public Argentine Ministry enters the fray for maybe intimidate the judge, who must make a decision in the coming weeks. No doubt the “nerve” refers to the meat industry, which, in Brazil and Argentina, may feel threatened in their interests, because if an animal gets a right, others will come after.

In its final conclusion, Professor Thompson sends a message to Sandra and all “Sandras” that exist in zoos in the world, just waiting for recognition of their basic rights of non-human person: “I would say to Sandra: Don’t give up hope yet that the legal system is stronger in the end than human self-interest.”

Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian

President, GAP Project International

La Nacion newspaper article (in Spanish): http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1821935-darwin-ha-muerto

The Intimate Ape blog article (in English): http://intimateape.blogspot.com.br/2015/08/buenos-aires-attorney-general-takes-on.html?spref=tw&m=1