Sandra had a baby boy called Gembira, born on March 1999, but she was separated from him when he was transferred to Xixiakou Wild Animal Park in Rongcheng, China.
[2] On December 18, 2014, Sandra was termed by the court in Argentina as a "subject of rights" in an unsuccessful habeas corpus case regarding the release of the orangutan from captivity at the Buenos Aires zoo.
The decision turning down the habeas corpus application also led to the court's direction to prosecute alleged cruelty by the zoo through the prosecutor's office in Buenos Aires in 2015.
The brief "subject of rights" statement left the status of the orangutan Sandra as a "non-human being" uncertain legally, until on October 21, 2015, Justice Elena Amanda Liberatori ruled in an amparo case with Sandra that the orangutan is "a non-human person" (Spanish: "una persona no humana") and ordered the city of Buenos Aires to provide what is "necessary to preserve her cognitive abilities".
[citation needed] In 2015, ALFADA pursued the release of Sandra from the Buenos Aires zoo and a legal decision to give her status as a "person" through an amparo application in court, which raised the issue of the legal status and rights of the orangutan under the Codigo Civil Argentino (Argentine Civil Code), under articles 30, 31, 32, 51, 52, 56, and 57.
On October 21, 2015, Justice Elena Liberatori ruled that a technical committee would issue a binding decision later on how Sandra would be accommodated with her new rights.