Amazing miracle Mosha the elephant is fitted with another prosthetic leg after landmine tragedy

Victims of landmines come in all shapes and sizes and Mosha the elephant is no exception.

Mosha, a baby elephant from Thailand, became the world's first pachyderm to be fitted with a prosthetic limb in 2007.

But the three-year-old has been growing so quickly she's outgrown two previous artificial legs and is now on her third.


Amazingly, Mosha is not the only elephant to be fitted with an artificial limb.

Another landmine victim, Motola, will also receive a prosthetic leg this weekend - 10 years after losing her left leg.

'I do hope she will accept the new leg. It would be wonderful to see Motola and Baby Mosha walking together side-by-side," said Soraida Salvala, secretary general of the charity Friends of the Asian Elephant.

Motola was injured in 1999 while she was working at a logging camp along the Myanmar-Thailand border. The area is known to be covered in land mines.

Her badly injured foot was amputated and the elephant managed to hobble along on three legs after the operation.



She was fitted with a canvas, shoe-like device two years ago, but will receive her own tailor-made artificial leg this weekend.

'It has been 10 years now, but in all these long years Motola enjoyed a happy life, walking out of her shelter for a sun bath,' said Salvala.

Experts in Thailand have already made casts of Motola's injured left foot for the permanent plastic leg. It must be strong enough to support the 48-year-old's three-ton weight.

Although Motola is the second elephant to receive an artificial leg, she has already been in the record books following her injury.

During the operation to remove her left foot, she received enough anaesthetic to knock out 70 people - a fact that put her into the Guinness Book of World Records in 2000.

Motola's new leg is being constructed by the Prostheses Foundation, an organisation that usually makes cheap but effective artificial limbs for human amputees.

The injuries of the two elephants have highlighted the difficulties facing the majestic creatures in Thailand.

Both are now being cared for at the Elephant Hospital in Northern Thailand. The hospital was set up by the FAE and is the only elephant hospital in the world.

It has treated thousands of elephants for ailments ranging from eye infection to gunshot wounds.

A number of elephants have also been injured by land mines, but the charity says this is just one problem facing the animals in Thailand.

They say the number of domesticated pachyderms has dropped from 13,400 in 1950 to today's estimated 2,500, while the number of wild elephants has also dropped dramatically.

Heinz mayonnaise advert with two men kissing set to become most complained of the year

A TV advert for Heinz mayonnaise showing two men sharing a kiss has sparked outrage from viewers.

After less than a week on the air, the commercial is facing claims of being 'offensive' and 'inappropriate' as well as unsuitable for children.

Some parents are annoyed the advert has forced them to have to explain same sex relationships to their children and it is already on track to become one of the most complained about of the year.

The commercial, which is set to run for five weeks, shows a family scene with a young boy and girl getting ready to go to school.

In the kitchen, there is a man preparing sandwiches who the children refer to as 'Mum.'

Their father, dressed in a suit, then enters the kitchen,grabs a sandwich and says to the other man: "See you tonight, love".

The 'mum' then shouts back 'Hey, ain't you forgetting something?,' before the two men engage in a kiss.

He then tells the other man: 'Love you. Straight home from work, sweet cheeks.'

The Advertising Standards Authority is still fielding complaints over the commercial after receiving 200 so far, but has yet to confirm if it will launch an investigation.

Heinz's advert is restricted from being shown in or around children's programmes as a result of rules around promoting products high in salt, fat and sugar.

But it is screened at all other times of the day, including between soaps and TV talent contests.

The BBC also came under fire after media watchdog Ofcom censured the broadcaster over two episodes of EastEnders.

Ofcom received 116 complaints over the portrayal of character Max Branning being buried alive by his estranged wife Tanya in March this year.

The first episode included the man's sedated body being dragged through a dark wood and dumped in a shallow grave. He is then aware as the coffin lid closes on him.

Opening scenes of the second episode portrayed him sobbing as the audience heard sounds of earth being shovelled on top of him.

Ofcom said both programmes had a 'seriously disturbing element to them' at a time when many children were likely to be watching.

It said information provided at the start of the programmes did not prepare viewers for the extent of the 'distressing scenes'.

The regulator said programme makers had not sufficiently respected their audience with the portrayal in a pre-watershed soap.

Footloose and fancy-free, the elephant whose landmine injury has been fixed with a fake leg

It may not be very elegant, but this fake leg is just the thing for a war-wounded elephant.

Baby elephant Mocha is pictured being fitted with the jumbo prosthetic after she stepped on a landmine in Burma and lost her foot.

The patching-up of the pachyderm was carried out by staff at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital in Lampang, northern Thailand.

Mocha received her false leg three years after vets at the hospital pioneered the procedure on a 440-year-old adult elephant, Motala, who had lost his leg in a landmine blast while working at a logging camp.

With the wide use of the massive beasts as draft animals in Thailand, the Lampang hospital has treated thousands of elephants for various ailments.