Lamb Spared the Axe Because of Ridiculous Proportions

I recently moved to England, and animal husbandry is big news in this country "“ literally, in the case of this story.

Despite the fact that he looks like he could keep a family of four in lamb chops for a week, Bruno, a 21-pound lamb born at a Worcestershire farm last Monday, will not become an Easter roast. Instead, the farm where he was born is planning on keeping him around, as a pet and future stud ram, and to see just how big this massive lamb is going to get.

To put Bruno's birth weight in perspective, the average lamb is born at just 7 pounds and takes only a few minutes to deliver "“ Bruno, on the other hand, heaved his fluffy black-and-white 21-pound bulk into the world after about 20 minutes of labor.

Farmer Mark Meredith, who delivered the colossal "wooly lamboth," told the Daily Mail later, "He was born at midnight on Monday "“ and it was immediately obvious he was no ordinary lamb."

Meredith, referring to the lamb's poor mother, "You couldn't tell when she was pregnant that she was going to have such a big lamb, she wasn't exceptionally large at all"¦. But when she was giving birth I put my hand on his little toe I knew straight away this was going to be a colossal lamb. We decided to call him Bruno "“ because he's a bit of a bruiser." Thankfully, the ewe survived the ordeal without any bruising "“ the birthing of large lambs has been known to cause severe injury to the mother, including cracked ribs and broken pelvises.

Whether or not Bruno is the largest lamb ever born is still up in the air, although he far outweighs another recent 17-pound Lambzilla born in North Wales (where sheep outnumber people almost four to one, incidentally). The Guinness Book of World Records is on the scene, so hopefully we'll know for sure soon.