TURKEY: BOAT CREW MAKE ARTIFICIAL LEG FOR SEAGULL.

Record ID: 863242

  • Title: TURKEY: BOAT CREW MAKE ARTIFICIAL LEG FOR SEAGULL.
  • Date: 6th July 2004
  • Summary: (L!1) ANTALYA, TURKEY (JULY 6, 2004) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BOAT "MARTHA", THE SEAGULL ON THE BOAT MARTHA INSIDE POOL MARTHA WALKING ON THE BOAT SOUNDBITE (Turkish), BOAT CREW, ONUR ATALAY: "We saw him jumping on his one leg as part of the other leg was missing. We decided to make him an artificial leg just like pirates have. Then we decided to make the leg with the legs of dolls." MARTHA SWIMMING SOUNDIBTE (Turkish), BOAT CREW, ONUR ATALAY: "We cut the leg of the baby doll and measured it with the seagull's leg and we added the hand of another doll to make it look like a seagull's foot. We covered the leg of seagull with cotton and glued the artificial leg onto it." VARIOUS OF MARTHA ONTHE BOAT TOURISTS WATCHING
  • Embargoed: 21st July 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ANTALYA, TURKEY
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVACAOGCP1W9OHLR2TRMNU2ZXW5E
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A seagull with a damaged leg has been given an artificial leg.
    Tourists on the deck of a daily tour yacht in the Turkish city of Antalya have a little companion. "Martha", a seagull, follows the boat on its route - but the seagull doesn't fly , it walks with an artificial leg.
    The yacht crew found Martha three weeks ago with a damaged leg. They brought it to a vet, who was unable to heal the leg and instead cut it off to avoid gangrene setting in.
    Then the crew began to think of ways to make an artificial leg for Martha.
    "We were inspired by the pirates, like their artificial legs" says Onur Atalay, the crewman on boat.
    They went to a toy shop, bought two dolls, one a "Barbie" doll, for the thin legs and one with a huge hand, so the hand can be attached as the 'seagull's foot.' "Now it can walk and even runs" says Atalay.
    Martha seems happy enough with its new life. It spends all day being fed by tourists and does a lot of swimming.
    And until it can fly again, this looks like a comfortable way to spend the days.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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