Orangutan gets personhood status

[Catherine]

Welcome elajos. Your article opens up a whole range of issues. I am going to need to read it again. You have clearly been thinking this through.
The whole idea of legal rights for animals is a complex issue. Sadly the law does need to get involved. Humans have a very long history of treating animals badly. Even science needs some legal guidelines because not all scientists have the same ethical standards. Many experiments are unnecessarily cruel. We have strict laws about experimenting on humans because we have a history of experimenting on humans in unethical ways. The same is true of animals and science.

Sandra's case is interesting in that it did set a legal precedent. Giving her non human personhood status means she can't just be disposed of or continue to be held in unsuitable conditions.
You are right about all the possible ramifications of the case. I don't think we know where we want to go with this. I don't think anyone can fully predict the legal fallout from this case.

I don't think anyone is trying to get full human rights for orangutans or any other great apes, but we already know they need some status. That is why we have sanctuaries to retire them to and we are banning their use in circuses and labs.

We may have to start distinguishing between higher intelligence animals and other animals. Then how do we measure intelligence? This is a whole different problem.

I have other things to say, but I will save them for another night.
This is a really big issue and now that it has been opened, it will need to be dealt with.