This Seriously Wooly Sheep Needs A Trip To The Baa-rber
A sheep with an extremely overgrown fleece has been found wandering the bush outside Canberra, Australia.
The RSPCA reckons the sheep’s fleece weighs over 20kg and put out an urgent call for a master shearer to lend their time and know-how to rescuing the sheep from its wooly prison.
Although it looks awfully impressive, the sheep’s coat covers its eyes, could stop it from going to the toilet and could also be concealing potentially fatal infections.
After putting a call out on its Facebook page, the charity has secured the help of local shearer Ian Elkins who will take his clippers to the as-yet-unnamed sheep on Thursday.
Strong look (pic: RSPCA)
It’s a delicate job; if the sheep has been away from human contact for a very long time then the RSPCA is worried that is may not survive the shock of being shorn.
No one knows where this mystery sheep came from, but the RSPCA suspects it became separated from its flock rather than being deliberately dumped in the wilderness.
Last year, a hugely overgrown sheep named Shaun was found living in Tasmania after going missing six years before. But the record for heaviest fleece stands with a New Zealand sheep named Shrek who had eluded shearers for six years by hiding in caves before he was was finally caught in 2004 and shorn on live TV. Shrek’s fleece weighed 27kg.
As well as competing for the record, this new sheep may yet join the ranks of real sheep named after pop culture icons as local radio station 2CC is running a naming competition.
(All images: RSPCA)
