Wandering Sheep with Massively Overgrown Wool Saved by Professional Shearer
Twenty years ago, scientists successfully cloned the first animal ever, a sheep named Dolly.
Well, look out Dolly; there’s a new guy in town. His name is Chris, and he is the most famous sheep in the world.
According to Alabama Public Radio, an Australian hiker spotted the massive ball of wool and immediately notified the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).
The sheep is a Merino, which are specifically bred to produce large amounts of wool. Merinos need to be shorn on a regular basis to avoid health effects like flystrike or trouble urinating.
When the RSPCA finally got to take a look at him, they estimated that Chris probably wandered away from his flock about five years ago due to the outrageous amount of wool he was sporting.
The sheep was partially blinded by the wool covering his eyes, and had skin burns from trapped urine. Experts say the hiker found Chris just in time, as he could have fallen over and been unable to stand back up.
According to CNN, sheep shearer Ian Elkins volunteered to give Chris his infamous haircut after being contacted by the RSPCA.
“I’ve been shearing for 35 years, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Many times we’ll shear a sheep and get five kilos but it was seven years since this sheep was actually shorn. It was quite a challenge,” Elkins said.
In total, it took about 45 minutes to remove the 18-inch fleece, which the RSPCA said weighed a jaw-dropping 89 pounds.
CNN also reports that the wool will be placed in a museum instead of being sold. American states like Wyoming, which is second in national wool production, are drooling at the thought of an 89-pound wool haul, as opposed to the 7.3 pounds they get from the average sheep.
The sheep’s shearing shattered the previous world record, which was recently set by a New Zealand sheep called “Big Ben.” Shearers stripped Ben of his 68-pound fleece in Jan. 2014.
When a champion shearer is in awe of your wool, you know you’re something special. It’s official, folks. This sheep is the G.O.A.T: the Greatest of All Time.
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