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Oct 27, 2009 8:56 am US/Eastern
Keys-Nurtured Sea Turtle Ready For Jet Trip Home
MARATHON (CBS4) ―
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Staffers at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon work with Sandy, an endangered Hawksbill sea turtle that was brought to them from St. Croix, where it had been badly wounded by dogs
Florida Keys News Bureau
"Sandy" the rehabilitated hawksbill sea turtle, who came to South Florida for medical care at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital is flying home to the Virgin Islands Tuesday morning. The vets say she has recovered from an attack by wild dogs and is now ready to return home via a flight on an American Airlines jet.
"Sandy," a mature nesting endangered hawksbill sea turtle, was flown from St. Croix to Miami for free on an American Airlines jet last November and will return home the same way.
She's expected to arrive at the American Airlines Cargo area around 9:30 a.m. via the hospital's turtle ambulance. From the ambulance, she'll be transferred from a shallow, toddler wading pool to a freight box; and then loaded onto the jet headed to St. Croix. Upon her arrival, she'll be released back into the wild.
Sandy had surgery on both front flippers at The Turtle Hospital. A veterinarian removed the entire front right flipper and took out a small section of the front left left. Staff members cared for the animal until it could enter a physical therapy program to relearn how to swim and catch food.
Hospital officials are confident the turtle can survive and nest again even with the missing flipper. They said every animal counts, because hawksbills are critically endangered.
"When turtles are endangered as Sandy is, each turtle becomes significant, inasmuch as the eggs she's carrying - there's thousands of eggs." said Richie Moretti, the hospital's founder and director. "And when an animal becomes endangered we look at this animal as it might make the difference whether future generations get to see hawksbills like Sandy."
The turtle was nicknamed "Sandy" by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials after she was discovered injured on the beach at the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge in St. Croix, a US Territory.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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