LAMPANG, Thailand ? A Thai elephant that attracted worldwide attention when her foot was amputated after she stepped on a land mine has been fitted with a temporary prosthesis, a wildlife conservation worker said Sunday.

 

The 44-year-old female elephant, Motola (search), is expected to wear the lightweight, canvas shoe-like device for five to eight months until her leg is strong enough to carry a heavier, permanent one, said Soraida Salwala, founder of the Friends of the Asian Elephant (search) hospital in northern Thailand.

 

Motola was injured in 1999 while working at a logging camp near the border with neighboring Myanmar (search), a region peppered with landmines after a half-century of insurgency. Her mangled, left front foot was subsequently amputated, and she has hobbled on three feet since.

 

Veterinarians have been attaching the sawdust-filled prosthesis to Motola daily since Aug. 10 as a therapeutic measure to help prepare her for a permanent prosthesis made from fiberglass and silicone, she said.

 

"We have to mold her leg," Soraida said. "If it doesn't fit, then it doesn't stay."

 

In the meantime, the current prosthesis may be replaced by a heavier one, perhaps filled with sand, to further exercise and strengthen the elephant's leg muscles and tendons before veterinarians attempt to attach the permanent one, she added.

 

The number of working elephants in Thailand has declined from about 10,000 in the 1970s to about 2,000.

 

 

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Boy, it's great the nations of the world are spending money on things like this, rather than things like bettering their own economic situation in some way.

In other news, thousands still starving and living in absolute crap in Thailand

In other news, thousands still starving and living in absolute crap in Thailand

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Yup, this is the problem with a lot of animal rights activists, they care more about animals than they do about humans. Like the head of PETA who wrote to Yassir Arafat to complain that a donkey was blown up in a suicide bombing. People would rather give an elephant a fake leg than dole out some money to impoverished people in their country.

Elephants mean a lot to the people of Thailand, who are we to judge if their priorities are screwed up? If it brings them pride and probably a bunch of money through tourism, so be it.

Um...this is a working elephant. Not like it's some zoo animal that animal rights people are protecting, they actually use elephants to do work over there, I'm sure it's cheaper for the owner to get his elephant a fake leg rather than buying a new one.

Um...this is a working elephant. Not like it's some zoo animal that animal rights people are protecting, they actually use elephants to do work over there, I'm sure it's cheaper for the owner to get his elephant a fake leg rather than buying a new one.

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LAMPANG, Thailand ? A Thai elephant that attracted worldwide attention when her foot was amputated after she stepped on a land mine has been fitted with a temporary prosthesis, a wildlife conservation worker said Sunday.

 

Because of this sentence, I'd assume it wasn't a working elephant, since it makes no mention of it being a working elephant, it only gives a statistic at the end about the number of working elephants.

 

I'd really love to know how much this thing cost, though.

I'm going to research this elephant when I have more time b/c I'll be damned if it wasn't in the workforce. Right now I'm at work.

 

 

 

How many starving children you suppose we can feed with the cost of an elephants prosthetic leg?

I'm going to research this elephant when I have more time b/c I'll be damned if it wasn't in the workforce. Right now I'm at work.

 

 

 

How many starving children you suppose we can feed with the cost of an elephants prosthetic leg?

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At least one, and that's all that matters.

She made headlines in 1999 by stepping on a landmine during work at a logging camp near the Thai-Burmese border.

 

From BBC News. So she was working. It's still an elephant (who's 44, by the way) and not a human. Maybe I'm just completely screwed up for wanting to help starving homeless children rather than an elephant.

By no meanns are you screwed up, but put things into perspective. At least it is a working elephant and I bet the owner relies on it for a good portion of income. Why do people own dogs, cats or any other pet when they could use the money to feed starving children? Why buy an X-box or playstation? There's starving children in the world you know, videogames aren't essential to life...I can go on and on. It's not the elephant owners' duty to save starving children, although he could out of the kindness of his heart, as could most of us.