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NEWS - Thai vet seeks aid for eleph



Subject: NEWS - Thai vet seeks aid for elephant hurt by landmine

Thai vet seeks aid for elephant hurt by landmine

  
BANGKOK, Aug 23 (Reuters) - An animal clinic in northern Thailand plans
to launch an Internet appeal for help to save the life of an elephant
whose foot was badly injured by a landmine. 

Motala, a 38-year-old cow elephant weighing more than four tonnes,
stepped on a landmine in the jungle in Myanmar on August 15, said
Preecha Poungkham, a vet at Lampang hospital about 600 km (366 miles)
north of the capital Bangkok. 

``Today, I will appeal for help on the Internet worldwide for animal
lovers to help save Motala's life,'' he said. 

Preecha said he wanted to operate on the elephant -- a national symbol
-- in the next couple of days but needed medical and financial help. 

He said it would cost more than a million baht ($26,150) to amputate the
elephant's left front leg, mangled below the knee, and replace it with
an artificial one. 

``We are in urgent need of medical equipment, especially tough thread
that is able to support the weight of an elephant. We do not have such a
thing in Thailand,'' he said. 

Preecha said he would also welcome medical advice on how to amputate an
elephant's leg since this would be the first recorded instance of such
an operation in Thailand, where the animals are used to haul logs and
for other heavy work. 

Thousands of landmines and booby traps have been planted in the Myanmar
jungles by the Myanmar Junta Army and ethnic rebels waging war against
the military junta in the Myanmar capital, Yangon. 
($1 - 38.25 baht) 

01:14 08-23-99

NOTE: The SLORC/ SPDC Tatmadaw should never be refered to as a
government.  They rule by force, Not legally, Not by the choice of the
people !