NEWS - Animal lovers delay Thai ele

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Subject: NEWS - Animal lovers delay Thai elephant operation

Animal lovers delay Thai elephant operation

  
BANGKOK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - A vital operation on an elephant which
stepped on a landmine has been postponed because the animal has become
distressed by hundreds of well-wishers, a Thai animal clinic said on
Thursday. 

The clinic, in Lampang province 600 km (366 miles) north of Bankgok, had
intended to amputate the front left leg of Motala, a 38-year-old cow
elephant, on Wednesday. 

But so many animal lovers had arrived in recent days to see the elephant
that the operation had to be delayed because she was too weak and needed
to regain strength. 

Motala, weighing more than four tonnes, stepped on a landmine in the
jungle in Myanmar on August 15 and has become a national celebrity this
week after newspapers reported her plight. 

``The weakness is the result of the bad wound and stress from being
disturbed by so many well-wishers,'' said a vet at the clinic who
declined to be identified. 

``We have had to limit visits to the elephant,'' he said. 

On Monday, the clinic appealed for money and 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, national symbols, are
used to haul logs and for other heavy work. 

Thousands of landmines and booby traps have been planted in the Myanmar
jungles by ethnic rebels waging war against the military government in
the Myanmar capital, Yangon. 

23:36 08-25-99