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All’s wool that ends wool: five sheep rescued from West Yorkshire rooftop

Firefighters help stranded animals after they jump onto house from neighbouring field

Colin Drury
Yorkshire
Friday 29 April 2022 04:59 EDT
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Sheep on a rooftop in the village of Newmillerdam
Sheep on a rooftop in the village of Newmillerdam (West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service)

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All’s wool that ends wool: five sheep have been rescued by firefighters after finding themselves stuck on a West Yorkshire rooftop.

The animals jumped onto the house across a gap from a neighbouring field in the village of Newmillerdam near Wakefield.

Officers with West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service constructed a makeshift bridge to help the sheep back to safety.

“Ph-ewe - this was a close shave,” the brigade tweeted following the call-out on Tuesday evening. “Our Tech Rescue Officer's specialist animal husbandry training came in handy when he rescued these sheep from a roof after they'd leapt onto it from a neighbouring field.

They added: “Baaa-rmy behaviour… wasn't quite the night on the tiles those sheep were hoping for".

Sheep on a rooftop in Nrewmillerdam
Sheep on a rooftop in Nrewmillerdam (West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service)

While many people might not have herd of anything like this before, sheep experts were probably less surprised by the escapade.

Despite their appearance, the animals are surprisingly nimble and have been known to jump distances of up to seven feet with most able to manage a three-feet leap.

A similar rescue was carried out in Bridgend in 2011 after a sheep jumped onto a garage then onto the roof of a row of terraced homes in the Welsh town.

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