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05th Nov 2023

“Loneliest sheep” Fiona has been rescued after being stranded for two years

Ryan Grace

sheep

It was a real resc-ewe effort!

A sheep who built a reputation for being the loneliest sheep in all of Britain has been rescued from a remote shore in the Scottish Highlands.

Fiona had been stranded at the foot of cliffs on the Cromarty Firth for over least two years. That was until a group of five farmers came to the rescue.

They managed to haul her up a steep slope, despite an animal welfare charity previously saying that any sort of rescue effort to save Fiona would be extremely tricky.

An animal welfare charity had said any attempts to rescue her would be “incredibly complex”.

sheep

Fiona the sheep in the Scottish highlands (Photo credit: Jill Turner)

It could have ended baaadly…

The rescue mission was organised by Cammy Wilson, a sheep shearer from Ayrshire, after coming across Fiona’s struggle on social media.

Wilson, a BBC presenter, organised the rescue with four farmers. Speaking in a video posted on Facebook, he said:

“We’ve come up here with some heavy equipment and we’ve got this sheep up an incredibly steep slope.

“She’s in incredible condition. She is about a condition score of about 4.5, she is overfat – it was some job lifting her up that slope. She is going to a very special place that a lot of you know very well, where you’ll be able to see her virtually every day.”

They plan to shear her overgrown fleece and hand her over to a farm park. They found her in a cave.

The Scottish SPCA said it had been aware of fiona’s plight some time but was unable to find a safe way to rescue her.

A petition calling for the ewe’s rescue had gathered over 50,000 signatures. Wilson and his team of farmers found her in a cave.

Fiona will receive some much-needed grooming in the coming days.

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