Yahoo – AFP,
3 Sep 2015
A heavily
overgrown sheep had its massive fleece shorn on Thursday by an Australian
national champion in a life-saving operation that animal welfare officers said
may have set a new world record for a single shearing.
The merino
sheep, named Chris by bushwalkers who spotted him wandering alone on the
outskirts of Australia's capital Canberra, was rescued by RSPCA officers
Wednesday and went under the cutters Thursday.
Some 40.45
kilogrammes (89.18 pounds) of wool was taken off in one large piece from the animal
by Australian Shearers' Hall of Famer Ian Elkins in a 42-minute process that he
said was "certainly a challenge".
"We
had to give it a mild sedative to keep it calm," Elkins told AFP.
"We
set the sheep on its back and because it had so much fleece underneath, it was
very comfortable. It took me 42 minutes to shear the sheep, which is a long
time because it normally takes me three minutes.
"I'm
sure it was very, very relieved after all that fleece came off. Sheep are shorn
once every 12 months and the average fleece weight is five kilogrammes."
The RSPCA
in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), which is taking care of Chris as he
recuperates -- including wearing a down coat to keep him warm, said they were
delighted with the successful shearing.
Merino
sheep are bred for their wool, which is used to produce high-end garments, and
need to be shorn regularly to prevent serious health issues such as flystrike
-- where a coat becomes infected -- and even death, said chief executive of
RSPCA ACT, Tammy Ven Dange.
"We're
really lucky that we got him when he did," she told AFP. "Had it been
summertime and the flies had been out, he might have already succumbed to
flystrike."
She said
the immense size of Chris's coat suggested it was at least five years since his
last trim.
"He's
more mobile now, it's easier for him to get up and he is eating already,"
Ven Dange said, adding that he had struggled to walk before the shearing
operation.
A sheep
named 'Chris' pictured on the outskirts of Canberra as Australian animal
welfare officers put out an urgent appeal for shearers to save it, on September
2,
2015 (AFP Photo)
|
It was not
known how old Chris was or who his original owners were.
The RSPCA
plans to get in touch with the Guinness World Records to see if Chris's fleece
might have set a new global best for the "most wool sheared from a sheep
in a single shearing".
The current
record is held by Big Ben, which was shorn of 28.9 kilograms in New Zealand in
January last year.
The fleece
will most likely end up in a museum, Ven Dange added, with Chris set to be put
up for adoption once he recovers.
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