Best foot forward: Thai elephant gets her ninth prosthetic leg

LAMPANG, Thailand, June 30 (Reuters) - Mosha the elephant, who stepped on a landmine along the Thai-Myanmar border 10 years ago, received her ninth prosthetic leg on Wednesday. [caption id="attachment_204298" align="aligncenter" width="728"] Doctor Therdchai Jivacate (L) stands in front of Mosha, the elephant that was injured by a landmine, at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation in Lampang, Thailand, June 29, 2016. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha[/caption] [caption id="attachment_204299" align="aligncenter" width="728"] Motola, the elephant that was injured by a landmine, wears her prosthetic leg at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation in Lampang, Thailand, June 29, 2016. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha[/caption] [caption id="attachment_204300" align="aligncenter" width="728"] Engineer Boonyu Thippaya (L) and a member of his team adjust a prosthetic leg for an elephant, that was injured by a landmine, at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation in Lampang, Thailand, June 29, 2016. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha[/caption] Mosha was just seven months old when the accident happened and she was rushed to an elephant hospital run by the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation in Lampang province in northern Thailand.   Two years later, surgeon Therdchai Jivacate gave her a new leg and a new life. As she has grown, he has designed new, longer and stronger legs for her.  

"The way she walked was unbalanced and her spine was going to bend," Therdchai, 72, said of Mosha before receiving her latest leg. "She would have died."   Mosha, who weighed only 600 kg when she was given her first artificial limb, now weighs over 2,000 kg.   Founded in 1993, the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation hospital was the world's first elephant hospital and currently has 17 patients.   The Thai-Myanmar border is still dotted with landmines left over from clashes between ethnic-minority rebels and the Myanmar army dating back decades.