Chris, the Sheep, almost killed by his own fleece

 

• Meet Chris, the Sheep Who Was Almost Killed By His Own Fleece — for Fashion

Korin Miller

Writer

September 3, 2015

It may look cute, but Chris the sheep’s 90 pound coat was dangerous to his health — and it was fueled by the fashion industry’s demand for merino wool.  (Photo: AP Images)

A merino sheep from Australia is making headlines after he was discovered in the wild with a massively overgrown fleece.

Chris the sheep strayed from his flock about five years ago and grew a fleece that was about five times its normal size, Tammy Ven Dange from Australia’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) announced on Twitter.

At the time of his discovery, Chris’s wool had grown so large and thick that his eyes were obscured and he could barely walk.

Ven Dange sent out a tweet Wednesday asking for help from a shearer after Chris was discovered in the Australian bush by a hiker. Champion sheep shearer Ian Elkins volunteered for the task and spent 45 minutes removing nearly 90 pounds of wool from Chris.

Chris after his makeover — and 90 pound weight loss. (Photo: Hons/AP Images)

That wool set a new official world record for the largest single fleece ever shorn (the previous record holder was a New Zealand sheep named “Big Ben” who had a 68-pound coat, per the RSPCA).

While the story seems funny, experts say Chris could have been killed by his overgrown fleece.

There are two types of sheep — those that grow hair and those that grow wool, Joseph Cassady, PhD, professor and head of the Department of Animal Science at South Dakota State University, explains to Yahoo Health.

While sheep that grow hair will shed, those that grow wool don’t — and it will keep on growing until the sheep is shorn, he says.

Related: 7 Reasons To Act More Like Your Pet

Domesticated, merino wool-producing sheep like Chris are genetically different from their feral cousins — they’ve been bred over time to produce more wool to feed the lucrative fashion industry. “An issue like Chris’s isn’t something that a wild sheep would face because “wild sheep just don’t grow wool as fast,” says Burgher.

It’s recommended that all sheep are shorn once a year, Cassady says, but merino sheep like Chris produce more pounds of wool than other forms of sheep.

And that fleece build-up could have caused a host of issues for Chris.

A major one is overheating. ”Sheep don’t sweat — they have to pant to cool down,” Clint Burgher, director of the Rutgers New Jersey Agriculture Experiment Station, tells Yahoo Health. And the more wool on a sheep, the more likely it is that they’ll get hot and possibly die of heat exhaustion.

The sheer weight of his fleece also made it difficult for Chris to get around, making it more likely he could become dinner for a passing predatory, Burgher says.

Chris was also in danger of falling over and not being able to get back up, Judy Marteniuk, DVM, an associate professor at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, tells Yahoo Health. “If sheep have a large wool coat, they can get on their side and back and be unable to rise,” she says. “Then, basically, they go into heart failure and can die.”

And then, of course, there are potential hygiene issues.

Michael L. Thonney, PhD, a professor and director of the Graduate Field of Animal Science at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, tells Yahoo Health that Chris was in danger of developing fly strike, a condition in which flies lay their eggs in warm moist areas, often contaminated with feces. After hatching, the fly larvae can burrow into the sheep’s skin and eventually kill it.

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