KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) – A sea turtle named after President Barack Obama that was rescued just before Inauguration Day has been set free on Independence Day.
Obama the loggerhead sea turtle was found ailing off a Key West beach on Jan. 19, the eve of the inauguration. Suffering from an intestinal impaction, the 200-pound female was nursed back to health with a diet of squid and mineral oil at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon.
Turtle Hospital administrator Ryan Butts said the turtle was set free Saturday on a Key West beach as about 100 people watched. He says it was appropriate to give the loggerhead its liberty on the Fourth of July after being rescued at a historic moment.
He says the loggerhead “took off” after being set on the sand and “swam away with all the energy it had.”
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- In this photo released by the Florida Keys News Bureau, staff and volunteers from the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital watch "Obama" the loggerhead sea turtle, scamper into the water at Higgs Beach in Key West, Fla., Saturday, July 4, 2009. The turtle was found severely ill Jan. 19, 2009, the day before President Barack Obama’s inauguration and nicknamed after the 44th president of the United States. Turtle Hospital officials said that since the 200-pound reptile had come to the hospital at a historic moment, it was appropriate to release it to freedom on America’s Independence Day anniversary. (AP Photo/Florida Keys News Bureau, Rob O’Neal)
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