Baarack The Rescued Sheep Yields 75 Pounds Of Wool After First Shearing In Years

But he was found roaming on his own in a forest in Australia by a private citizen who contacted a nearby sanctuary — Edgar's Mission Farm Sanctuary — to come and rescue the poor, overgrown animal.

But, as the Mission's Kyle Behrend told Reuters, he had definitely been owned at some point.

"He had at one time been ear-tagged, however these appear to have been torn out by the thick matted fleece around his face," Behrend said.

"Sheep need to be shorn at least annually otherwise the fleece continues to grow and grow, as happened here," Behrend explained.

It's not just a matter of having too much wool — according to North Dakota State University, overgrown sheep are at greater risk of developing infections due to matted dirt and manure and urine, and they have a harder time regulating their body temperature. It can be a dangerous situation for them.

Normally, a sheep can be shorn in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, Baarack had grown so wild and woolly that even the pros at the Mission needed almost an hour to remove all the fleece.

When all was said and done, they had removed about 35 kg (77 pounds) of wool.

In fact, in 2015, a Merino sheep rescued in Australia named Chris bore an astounding 41.1 kg (90 lbs) of wool when he finally got sheared.

"This is no title to covet, as it amounts to being the most neglected sheep in the world," they said in 2019, following Chris's passing, according to USA Today.

Pam Ahren at Edgar's Mission told News 9 that his first few steps after the shearing were wobbly.

"As soon as the wool came off him and he took his first steps, he was like, 'Whoa, what's going on here,'" she said.

And Baarack did have a lot to recover from. In addition to being underweight, his vision suffered as well, with fleece obscuring his vision, dirt and debris "pooling in the gap between his cornea and the lid," and a grass seed causing an ulcer there, too.

But, although he obviously went neglected for an extended period of time, Baarack isn't completely worse for wear. The sanctuary said that time spent running over rocks in the wild has actually left Baarack's hooves in good condition.

No longer neglected, the team at Edgar's Mission is taking good care of their new charge, but they put it down to the sort of animal Baarack is.

Behrend said that it "all goes to show what incredibly resilient and brave animals sheep really are and we could not love them any more if we tried."

h/t: Reuters