The one horned ram, incorrectly identified by international media as a “unicorn” has been spared from the slaughterhouse, though his notoriety and fame did not play any part.
Turns out the ram just isn’t very punctual. After the lambs are born in the spring, Icelandic sheep are sent out into the countryside where they do their sheepy things until the fall. In the fall they make their way back to the farms as the temperature drops or they’re collected by the farmers and sent to slaughter.
“He wandered back to the farm just before Christmas,” farmer Erla Þórey Ólafsdóttir told RÚV. “That’s why he’s still alive, the other sheep were sent to slaughter on October 31st.”
At a certain age, the taste and texture of lamb meat changes and becomes difficult to sell and so there was no point in killing Not-A-Unicorn so late in the year.
“There’s not much meat on him anyway,” said Erla, adding that besides the one horn he is completely unremarkable in every way.
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