A pair of sheep rams were often noticed wandering the outskirts of a state forest in a rural area of Australia. No one seems to know who they belonged to or where they were supposed to be, but it was obvious that they were in poor health due to their overgrown fleeces. Eventually, animal control rounded them up and brought them to a rural pound, where they were thankfully rescued by an animal sanctuary dedicated to helping neglected farm creatures like these.
Now watch their amazing transformation.
For Ram-ond and Ram-und, it has not been an easy life. No one knows where this pair of sheep came from but they seem to have been wandering the wilderness (or “bush” as they say in Australia) for many years, to judge by the massive and terrible state of their overgrown fleeces.
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Though humans have bred sheep to grow enormous heavy fleeces that do not shed on their own, they also leave them to graze out in the wild, where they can sometimes become separated froth rest of the flock and lost. This may be a minor problem for the farmer, who may have hundreds of other sheep, but poses a huge problem for the lost livestock, which can fall prey to predators, disease, starvation, accidents, and a slow, grueling death as their fleece grows so heavy and ponderous that they cannot even move.
A Sanctuary For Neglected Farm Animals
That has been the fate of many of the sanctuary’s rescues at Edgar’s Mission, the group that took in this pair of rams. Sometimes the lost sheep are found with nearly a hundred pounds of fleece dragging them down. For Ram-ond, his fleece had grown in so thickly around his head and horns that he could no longer even see. He was so weakened and hampered by his state that he actually collapsed not eh way to the sanctuary and had to be put on IV fluids.
The first step to saving these animals is to rid them of their immense fleeces. In fact, the caretakers at the sanctuary had to hand-cut a portion of the fleece away at Ram-ond’s legs in order to place an IV catheter. The entire time that he was lying on the ground, his companion Ram-und refused to leave his side, standing over him, as he’d obviously also cared for them when they wandered in the wilderness.
After he received some fluids, the ram was able to stand again and even follow his friend into a stall that had been prepared for them with fresh hay to eat. And then, the real work began—getting rid of those heavy fleeces.
A Problem Caused By Humans
It is important to remember that these overgrowths are not natural—the animals were specifically bred to produce them, then left in the wild to fend for themselves.
After Ram-ond and Ram-und were divested of their enormous woolly coats, the sanctuary was able to treat them for internal parasites and other nasty ailments they may have picked up while lost in the bush. But it was getting rid of those burdensome and dangerous coats that will truly give them a new start to life.
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