Thai coin-eating turtle dies
Print Edition
TOURISTS in eastern Thailand used to toss coins at a green sea turtle that lived in a pond in the country’s east, wishing for luck and long life.
But swallowing the shiny tidbits turned out to be a death sentence for the reptile.
After having nearly a thousand coins removed from its stomach in a four-hour operation two weeks ago, the turtle — nicknamed “Omsin,” or “Piggy Bank,” — died yesterday.
Omsin, estimated to be 25 years old, had been rescued by Thai navy personnel who saw her ailing in the seaside town of Sattahip. She was then examined by a vet, who found the coins in her stomach.
The story attracted international media attention and a public clamor to ease Omsin’s plight. The weight of the money had cracked her underside shell, and threatened a fatal infection.
The cause of death was an obstruction that blocked Omsin’s protein intake, while nickel toxicity from the coins damaged her immune system, said Dr Roongroje Thanawongnuwech, dean of the veterinary school at Chulalongkorn University.
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