Update: 15th January 2002

Amputee Thai elephant to undergo more surgery

A Thai elephant maimed by a land mine two years ago will undergo surgery to accelerate the growth of skin on her amputated leg. Motola attracted worldwide attention in 1999 when bone specialists and surgeons saved her life by cutting away 12 inches of her front left foot. It had been shredded by a land mine in the jungle of neighbouring Myanmar. Prosthetic specialists teamed up with the vets to design and prepare an artificial foot for the 40 year-old logging elephant, who would have been the first known to use one. But the team has not been able to fit the prosthesis because there is still a seven centimetre open wound from the amputation, said Preecha Puangkham, chief veterinarian at the Hang Chat Elephant Hospital in northern Lampang province. "The healing has been too slow and we are worried because we have put off fitting the prosthesis again and again," Mr Preecha said. The veterinary team is now planning an operation to cut back flesh blocking the growth of skin that could cover the open wound, Preecha said. No date has been set for the operation but doctors will discuss it soon, he said. Motola is in high spirits and has adapted well to her handicap, hobbling around the hospital grounds about 320 miles north of Bangkok. She has gained weight since her operation and now weighs four tons, up from three tons at the time of her accident, he said. Locals have donated more than $100,000 (nearly 70000) to pay for Motala's treatment. Her plight also focused attention on Thailand's declining number of domesticated elephants, now estimated to total 2,500, down from as many as 100,000 at the start of the 20th century. Source: Ananova

Story filed: 15th January 2002

Wednesday 10 January 2001

An elephant that drew sympathy from around the world after being maimed by a landmine has now received death threats, it was revealed in Bangkok. Thais and some foreigners donated more than $230,000 to help Motala after she trod on a landmine. Thirty surgeons saved the elephant's life, but amputated much of her shredded foot.Sympathetic donations flooded in, more than were needed to care for the elephant. Now Soraida Salwala, founder of the world's first elephant hospital in Lampang, said groups jealous of Motala's celebrity and the donations had telephoned her saying they "want Motala dead". Three deadly king cobras were released recently near a path Motala uses daily. No king cobras had ever been sighted before on that path, said Ms Salwala. She said motorcyclists and cars had driven by her house late at night, the occupants sometimes shouting threats. A man in military uniform approached the veterinarian leading the team treating Motala, and warned him to stop working for the elephant charity Ms Salwala founded. Because of the threats, visitors to the hospital are no longer allowed in Motala's enclosure.

Ms Salwala is convinced elephant traders and Thai animal welfare organizations are behind the threats and menaces. Motala was injured working at an illegal logging camp near the Burma border. She was saved from death in the operation in which she was given enough anesthetic to floor 70 grown men. Veterinarians still hope to fit her with a prosthetic device. But for now, the 39-year-old elephant hobbles on three feet.

Source:The Age

Prayers For An Elephant

Thailand's latest land-mine victim stirs emotions

and renews concern over the plight of the pachyderms.

By Paul Handley

Newsweek International 1999

The world hardly needs more poster material for the plight of land-mine victims. But Motala is as innocent as they come. The 38-year-old Asian elephant stepped on a land mine deep in the war-torn jungle in southern Burma while rummaging for food on a break from her heavy workload. She was part of an ugly, illegal trade: her Thai mahout, or trainer and owner, had been hired by loggers to illegally harvest and haul the heavy trunks of valuable teak trees that grow in the jungle. The mahout, Somwang Arunwiriya, had heard of the Elephant Hospital in northern Thailand, and decided to try to recoup his loss: the elephant had cost $8,000 — four times the average annual income in Thailand — four years ago. For three days, he and Motala walked through thick, mountainous jungle across the Thai border, then hired a truck to carry them the rest of the way. The elephant's injured limb became badly infected. As Motala staggered into the hospital, onlookers wept. The animal was in such terrible pain that hospital workers swore they saw tears fall from Motala's eyes.

Motala's tale has swept Thailand with a wave of emotion. Until this century, elephants formed the backbone of Thailand's economy and Army, doing everything from hauling goods to carrying soldiers and kings into battle. The elephant is Thailand's revered national symbol. Following the accident, newspapers featured Motala on page one, with daily features on latest developments — what she had eaten, doctors' comments, debate over the role of the mahout. Concerned Thais donated nearly $110,000 to support an operation to save her leg. Thailand's leading veterinarians and orthopedic surgeons volunteered their expertise. As the crusade to save Motala grabbed the headlines, her sad story revived growing concerns about the plight of Thailand's beleaguered elephants.





Technically, Motala's operation wasn't complicated. "When we operate on a human we do the same thing," says orthopedic surgeon Therdchai Jivacate, part of the team that operated on Motala. (Still, the doctors did have to feed her 20 liters of glucose and five bunches of bananas every day.) But how, exactly, do you operate on a 2.7-ton elephant? "You improvise," says another member of the operating team. To clean the wound before the operation began two weeks ago, doctors packed a jumbo-size black plastic trash bag with antiseptic-soaked cloths and strapped Motala's foot inside — cotton swabs just wouldn't do. An electricity plant loaned one of its heavy cranes for moving the patient. A giant sling and a cot were constructed from a firefighting hose. The Elephant Hospital's operating room was little more than a concrete floor in the forest, with a corrugated tin roof high overhead on poles. After deciding to lay the patient down instead of suspending her from the crane, doctors pumped her with the equivalent of 70 human-size doses of anesthesia.



The nation followed the operation's progress with bated breath. Motala came round several times during the three-hour operation; doctors kept pumping in more anesthetic. A day later, Thais rejoiced when doctors pronounced the operation a success. By last week Motala was well enough for the team of doctors to winch her onto her feet with the giant sling to ensure circulation to the rest of her limbs. "She seemed to understand that people were there to help her," one onlooker said.





Motala's plight is all too common. Several other elephants have also stepped on land mines across the border in Burma, where ethnic-minority armies are fighting against the Burmese regime. None, except Motala, made it to the Elephant Hospital. Not only land mines are threatening the elephants. A ban on logging in Thailand a decade ago has made it hard for the country's 3,000 domesticated elephants to find work. Many mahouts take their elephants to urban areas, where they offer rides and jungle treks to foreign tourists. Invisible on the road at night, the animals get hit by cars all too often. Others go deep into Burma or Laos for dangerous logging jobs, often on illegal operations. Soraida Salwala, director of the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation in Bangkok, is just as worried about physical and mental damage resulting from drug use. Veterinarians found evidence of drug-caused liver damage in Motala's blood. Somwang, her mahout, reportedly admitted that he fed her amphetamines. Many mahouts feed their elephants with speed to make them work harder at their logging jobs. "What can we do?" asks Soraida, whose foundation helped raise funds for the operation. "Someone has to take care of them."

Friends of the Asian Elephant

Soraida Salwala

E-mail soraida@elephant-soraida.com





While mahouts push their elephants to work ever harder, some experts are trying to reintroduce the surplus captive population into the wild. The World Wildlife Fund released several dozen into a northern Thailand wildlife sanctuary this year, hoping the elephants can learn to live on their own. But humans are moving in on the wild elephants' habitat. In southern Thailand last year, pineapple farmers set out poison to kill elephants that had strayed onto their fields — former forestland — in search of food. The government ordered the farmers to stop before any animals were killed, but the struggle over land continues.





The Thais will be watching as Motala gets fitted for what must be the world's largest prosthetic foot. Surgeon Therdchai, who heads the Prosthesis Foundation of Thailand, has helped fashion 2,000 artificial limbs for land-mine victims in his country over the past six years. "But it's the first time I've had to make anything this size," he says with a laugh. If Motala's wound heals well, in a few weeks Therdchai can start fitting a limb. The socket will be made of stiff plastic. He will make the footpad from replaceable treads from old car tires. "We have no idea if Motala will accept it or not," he says.