Sheep, dog, or sheepdog? Baaa-rk
A Chinese farmer has claimed that one of his sheep has given birth – to a dog!
Liu Naiying has declared the birth a miracle, even though vets have described it as an impossibility. The lamb has a woolly pelt, but its facial features, tail and paws look more like a canine’s.
The curious cryptid has drawn thousands of sightseers from miles around to clap eyes on him for themselves.
Mr Liu recounted how he found the eerie-looking lamb in one of his fields, soon after it was born. He said:
“I was herding the sheep, and saw a sheep licking her newborn lamb on the grassland. The lamb was still wet.”
“When I went up close to check on the lamb I was shocked because it looked so weird, like a cross between a sheep and a dog.”
“I was a bit frightened, as I’ve been raising sheep for 20 years and had never seen such a creature.”
Although it’s tempting to think that a hard-working, kinky sheepdog may get awfully lonely on a cold, winter night and seek the company of a comely ewe, a prominent scientist was quick to dismiss the notion that the animal is a hybrid as a load of old toot.
Yue Guozhang, of the Xi’an City Animal Husbandry Technology Centre, said that any crossbreeding was out of the question, as dogs and sheep are completely different species. He said:
“It’s not possible that a sheep could become pregnant with a puppy.”
“It’s likely that this is just an abnormal lamb.”
