NEWS - Thai Vets Battle to Save Leg

[Rangoonp@xxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS - Thai Vets Battle to Save Leg of Elephant Land Mine Victim

Thai Vets Battle to Save Leg of Elephant Land Mine Victim
August 21, 1999 
Web posted at: 11:21 AM EDT (1521 GMT) 


BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Thai veterinarians fear they may have to
amputate a leg and fit a prosthesis to an elephant which stepped on a
land mine in the jungles of neighboring Myanmar. 

The 38-year-old pachyderm, named Motola, trod on an anti-personnel mine
a week ago as it foraged for food along the rugged Thai-Myanmar border
during a break from hauling logs from the forest. 

The blast shredded the elephant's left foot. The crippled beast's
handler made it hobble through the mountains out of Myanmar, which is
also known as Burma, and then along sealed roads for three days to reach
an elephant hospital at Lampang in northern Thailand. 

By the time Motola had completed its marathon 100 kilometer (60 mile)
trek, the flesh of his foot had started to decompose. 

"His wounds are very dirty. We have given him injections to stop
bleeding and infection," vet Preecha Puangkham told The Associated Press
on Saturday. 

If the foot does not start to heal in three days they will have to
amputate up to the knee, Preecha said. 

Vets have administered jumbo-sized doses of painkillers. They also plan
to hoist up the three-ton elephant with a crane or pulley to take the
weight off the foot. 

The elephant hospital at Lampang, 510 kilometers (317 miles) north of
Bangkok, has years of experience caring for wounded and maltreated
pachyderms. Some have been fed amphetamines to make them work faster, or
even hit by vehicles on Thailand's highways. 

But Motola's wounds, inflicted in renegade country strewn with
explosives by ethnic rebels and Myanmar government forces, were the
worst the vets at the sanctuary had ever seen. 

If they do have to amputate, Preecha hoped to fit a prosthesis, although
as far as he knew, this had never been attempted before in Thailand.