A sheep found wombling aimlessly around Porirua will soon go on auction due to an old law which dictates he can’t be rehomed.
Shaun the sheep has been in Porirua City Council’s pound for a week after he was found wandering the streets at night.
Porirua Animal Control team spokesperson Suzanne Hokianga said she enlisted the help of a local farmer who went to see if Shaun was his. He wasn’t, but he captured him and he’s been at the pound clearing the grass for the last week.
“So somebody has managed or handled him enough that they’ve shorn his coat, so that gives away the idea that he’s wild,” she said.
That’s where he got his first name from, but what about his last name, Ramsey?
“I call them Ramsey for short, and once it hit the sort of public we had a lot of sheep jokes coming through on the post, and one particular gentleman suggested we put Shaun in front of it because he was a shorn ram, so it made sense to do that. So now he's got a first name as well as his last.”
Shaun Ramsey is currently staying at the dog pound where he enjoys a large grass area, Hokianga said.
“He rules that area…he sits under the trees up there and looks over the sort of the yard and he has been interesting to keep because he will challenge the dogs in their outside pens and he will actually stomp his feet at the gate and then charge at the fence where the dogs are being housed. So the opposite of what you might think that, you know, a sheep is scared, totally not with Shaun because he's got attitude.”
Despite a popular social media post, Hokianga said Shaun’s owners haven’t been identified.
While the pound would like to rehome him, an archaic law means they must auction Shaun. Hokianga said that’s set down for 1 March.
“Obviously, he's a farm animal, and we've got some public wanting him to go back to a farm and then we've got other public obviously that are concerned for his welfare and want him to go to a good home, but I imagine he'll make a good family pet.”
