For weeks, members of the public have been reporting the presence of a huge, fluffy animal on the border of Canberra and NSW.
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It turned out to be a Merino sheep.
RSPCA
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or RSPCA sent out officers to capture the sheep which they later found out to have escaped and is clearly in need of some serious grooming.
RSPCA / PR IMAGE
Merinos are a domesticated breed. They’re supposed to just grow and grow their wool which needs to be sheared regularly; otherwise the sheep gets crushed by their own body hair. Just like what happened to this poor fella.
RSPCA
The RSPCA believes this Merino, who has been named Chris, hadn’t experienced the tender ministrations of a shearer in about 5 years.
RSPCA
After Chris was captured, the rescuers put out the call for shearers to remove the sheep’s coat ASAP.
RSPCA
Australia’s sheep-shearing champion Ian Elkins answered the call along with four other shearers. It took the team 40 minutes to finish the job.
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And there was A LOT of wool. So much wool that the shearers had to go back for a second round of shearing.
RSPCA
You can barely see Chris in all the wool. He seems to be enjoying the cut though.
RSPCA
They ended up removing 40.45kg (89lbs!) of fleece, setting a world record for the most wool to ever come off a sheep in a single sitting.
RSPCA
Chris seems to be happy with his new haircut. Don’t worry about the pink marks, they’re only antiseptic spray.
RSPCA
Chris will be staying with his rescuers for a few days before hopefully being adopted by a loving family that does not forget to shear him regularly, that is if he doesn’t escape again.
H/t BuzzFeed, Some Ecards