Baarack, a sheep found roaming wild through regional Australia, has been shorn of his 35.4kg fleece.
The Merino ram was rescued by a member of the public who spotted him in a forest that adjoined the boundary of a property he was working on.
The individual then contacted Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary, to seek assistance for the ram, who took him into their care.
Barrack received a much-needed shearing and was found with 35.4kilos fleece, which the sanctuary “believe to be the second-highest recorded weight of a fleece”.
A spokesperson for the sanctuary said: “It would appear Baarack was once an owned sheep; he also had at one time been ear-tagged.”
“However, these appear to have been torn out by the thick matted fleece around his face as all that remained of their presence where the holes they had made in his ears.”
“Sheep need to be shorn at least annually; otherwise the fleece continues to grow and grow, as happened here.”
Underweight
Whilst his hooves were in “great” condition from running over the rocks in the forest, he was underweight. Due to all the wool around his face, he “could barely see”, according to the spokesperson.
“The weight of the wool too had pulled so much on his lower eyelids that they had sagged. His right one worse, with grit and debris pooling in the gap between his cornea and the lid. A nasty grass seed, which was still in there, had caused a painful ulcer.”
“He is doing so well today, surprising us really and becoming more trusting too. We truly believe that he understands what we have done for him has eased his life and turned it for the better.”
“For the time being, he is setting in with equally lucky other rescued sheep, Chloe who is 17 years young and Molly Brown, the sole survivor of a horrific truck roll-over accident many years ago – which all goes to show what incredibly resilient and brave animals sheep really are and we could not love them any more if we tried. Yet somehow, we always do.” the spokesperson concluded.
