Baby giraffe with artificial leg dies
Japanese Grieve as Giraffe with Artificial Leg Dies
Fri Jun 21,10:15 AM ET
TOKYO (Reuters) - The death of a young giraffe with an artificial leg in Japan has caused an outpouring of grief from people moved by its fight for life, prompting them to flood the animal's zoo with mail, flowers and offerings of food.
Ten-month-old Taiyo at the Omoriyama Zoo in Akita, northern Japan, had been given a bamboo leg last month following a run-in with a zebra, but died on Tuesday after undergoing further treatment.
"We think his struggle over the last few months finally caught up with him, and it became too great a burden for his heart," said zoo official Norihiro Shibata.
"We are sad, very sad. I can't bear to watch news reports in which he appears."
Shibata said the zoo planned to hold a memorial service this weekend and that he expected many people to attend.
Keepers at the zoo had struggled to keep Taiyo -- meaning "sun" in Japanese -- alive after he fell and broke his right leg in the zebra incident in March, placing the limb in a cast.
But signs of tissue death soon threatened to lead to blood-poisoning, forcing them to amputate part of his leg and replace it with an artificial limb they constructed, after weeks of experimenting, from bamboo and a rubber boot.
"Now we know that if an animal has the will to live, we may succeed in saving it, even in the most difficult of situations," Shibata said.
"This is what we learned from Taiyo. He was an amazing giraffe."
--------------
Rest in peace, brave little creature!
