Fiona, a sheep stranded for two years on a remote beach at the bottom of a cliff in Scotland, needed rescuing because of her overgrown wool coat and because she was overweight, a farmer has said.
Labelled as "Britain's loneliest sheep", the three-year-old ewe was rescued at the weekend after becoming trapped on the shingle beach in the Scottish Highlands.
A petition to rescue her gained thousands of signatures after she was discovered by a kayaker in October at the foot of a cliff on the Cromarty Firth.
A farmer who helped with the rescue, Cammy Wilson, said the sheep had become overweight because it had access to unlimited grass along the shoreline.
"She was getting so fat and the weight of her wool was making movement even harder," he told The Telegraph on Monday.
"It meant she was quite lethargic and not as fit and vigorous as a normal sheep. She needed rescuing, absolutely."
On Sunday evening Fiona was taken to Dalscone Farm Fun, a family attraction in Dumfries, but her new home was the subject of a protest by Animal Rising, who said she would become a "spectacle" and be "exploited", as an online petition attracted more than 8,300 singatures.
An online petition signed by more than 6,500 people called for Fiona to be rehomed at Tribe Animal Sanctuary near Glasgow instead.
In a Facebook video, Ben Best, who workes at Dalscone Farm Fun, said Fiona is the "world's most famous animal at the moment", and she had arrived in the cover of darkness at her "new forever home".
She's doing absolutely "phenomenal", he said, adding that she "is so chilled, she is doing great".
She appeared to be eating hay in her new pen with a freshly shorn coat.
Mr Wilson said Fiona is not stressed at Dalscone Farm and dismissed concerns by the Animal Rising group.
"They’re labelling Dalscone as a petting zoo, but at Dalscone nobody is allowed in the pens, so [Fiona] can wander away from people whenever she wants," he told the Telegraph.
"She’s in absolutely the best place for her."
Fiona became known as Britain’s loneliest sheep after it emerged the ewe had been stranded around cliffs on the Cromarty Firth.
She was first discovered in 2021 by kayaker Jillian Turner, who returned to the spot near Balinore this year to find the animal still there, with its fleece overgrown.
Fiona was rescued on Saturday by a team of five farmers who used a winch on a mounted truck, parked at the top of the cliff, to pull Fiona, who sat inside a sling, to safety.
She was "totally relaxed" during the rescue, Mr Wilson added.
