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NEWS - Injured Thai Elephant Stands



Subject: NEWS - Injured Thai Elephant Stands Alone

Injured Thai Elephant Stands Alone

 .c The Associated Press

 LAMPANG, Thailand (AP) - One week after an operation to save her leg, a
Thai elephant injured after stepping on a land mine is able to move
about on her three good legs.

Veterinarians at the elephant hospital in Lampang, some 320 miles north
of Bangkok, released the elephant, Motola, from a canvas harness that
had supported her and allowed the 3 ton beast to shuffle about on her
own.

Chief vet Preecha Puangkam told The Associated Press on Monday that
Motola's condition had improved greatly since the complex operation to
cut away infected flesh and shattered bones in her front left foot last
Saturday.

Eight days after the three-hour surgery, the 38-year old pachyderm was
given the chance on Sunday to carry her own weight and move about.
Initially, vets expected she would need to be supported by a crane for
two weeks after her operation.

A cloth cushion placed on the ground now helps the her ease the pressure
on the wounded leg, as she props herself up with her small tusks and
trunk on a horizontal metal beam.

When the wound is healed, the hospital plans to fit her with an
artificial foot to help her walk again.

Motola stepped on a land mine nearly three weeks ago as she foraged
during a break from hauling logs out of jungle just inside Myanmar, also
known as Burma, the scene of a half-century of insurgency.

Thais contributed over $105,000 to pay for her treatment. On the way to
recovery, Motola is now eating some 220 pounds of bananas and sugar cane
a day, Preecha said.

Meanwhile, an autopsy of an elephant that died at the hospital over the
weekend after refusing to eat, revealed that the cause was chronic and
prolonged indigestion.

Vets had initially suspected food poisoning or kidney failure, but
concluded that the elephant had suffered indigestion for months because
she had been badly cared for by her keeper.

Although the elephant is Thailand's national animal, many of the 2,000
domesticated pachyderms in the country are mistreated by the tourism and
logging industries.

AP-NY-09-06-99 1159EDT