River rescue lamb at centre of custody battle

A schoolgirl who saved a newborn lamb from drowning is embroiled in a row with a farmer who has launched a legal battle to reclaim the animal. Kirsty Finnie, 15, pulled the creature from a river in Banchory, Aberdeenshire, and nursed him back to health before handing him over to an animal sanctuary. Now farmer John McIrvine has instructed lawyers to demand the return of the lamb, christened River, which he claimed had been stolen. He described the Willows sanctuary as a "funny farm" and said: "River has a future as a breeding ram, not spending his time castrated with a goat and a pony." The row began after Kirsty, from Peterculter, rescued the young animal from a river in Banchory on April 8.

She told Willows Animal Sanctuary, near Strichen: "I went into the river and pulled it out, by that time it had given up. I carried it back to the caravan, wrapped it in a towel and put a heater on. It recovered but was very weak. We couldn't see any sheep nearby so we think it had been swept down the river. It doesn't have any tags and still had a bit of its umbilical cord. We took it to our house in Peterculter. We looked up online how we should look after it. We have been feeding him 150ml of goats milk every four hours from a babies bottle. We decided it would be best to put him to Willow Animal Sanctuary so he could live a happy contented life. We found out that he is a male black faced sheep."



Staff said River has become an instant attraction at the sanctuary and is particularly popular with disabled visitors. But now he is at the centre of a tug-of-love battle between the charity - which is determined to keep him - and farmer John McIrvine, who wants his lamb back. Charity trustee Kate Robinson said: "Young Kirsty risked her own life to rescue River and she is determined he should be allowed to stay where he is. People would be heartbroken if we had to give him away. What we want to do is appeal to the farmer's good side and ask him to let River stay with us. If he wasn't saved by Kirsty in the first place, he would have been lost for ever. We're hoping he can see things our way." A Willows spokeswoman said: "We are hoping that we can appeal to his better nature and are asking him to leave the lamb here where it is much loved by all our vulnerable people.

"We do not have a problem with farmers at all. We simply want what's best for River. We are well aware of how to care for lambs and sheep correctly and can assure you all that he receives the best possible care from us and our vets. We hope that the farmer will allow us to keep him here as our vulnerable clients are already deeply attached to him and the matter is in the hands of our solicitors." Mr McIrvine said he accepted that he was being portrayed as the “villain of the piece”. But he insisted: “This situation can be resolved. I have offered the sanctuary a donation and offered a replacement lamb that doesn’t have the same breeding potential. But they don’t want to know and that’s where we’ve got an issue. And if this lamb is castrated we are going into litigation. It is my living and I need the lamb.”

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