In some heart-warming news, Thai elephant Mosha received a new prosthetic leg at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation hospital in northern Thailand. Mosha was seven months old when she stepped on a land mine near the Thailand-Myanmar border and lost a front leg.
The first elephant to be fitted with a prosthetic limb at the hospital near Lampang, this is her ninth artificial leg as she has grown in size. When she lost her leg, she weighed 1300 pounds and today weighs more than 4,000 pounds. Surgeon Therdchai Jivacate gave her a new leg and a new life two years after she lost a limb.
More than a dozen elephants have been wounded by land mines in the Thai-Myanmar border region, where rebels have been fighting the Myanmar government for decades.
Thai elephant Motola with her new prosthetic limb
Motola, another elephant who calls the hospital home, lost a front leg to a land mine in the same border area in 1999. Motola, featured in The Eyes of Thailand – a 2012 documentary that captured her being fitted with an artificial limb – weighed 600 pounds then. Motola had her prosthetic leg adjusted as she weighs 2000 pounds today.
The artificial limbs are critical as the unbalanced walk was likely to cause their spines to bend. This could be fatal for the wounded elephants.
In the past, many elephants in Thailand worked in the logging industry in harsh conditions. The Thai government banned logging in the nation’s forests in 1989, putting them out of work.
Many of the elephants are subject to cruel rides and are used to perform for entertainment. Read our guide on how to hang out with elephants without hurting them.