What do you get when a man has sex with a sheep? Tabloid Thursday!
Wait, did I say Tabloid Thursday!, I meant a monstrous crime against nature. Last week, the Weekly World News (of all people) picked up a story from a Nigerian news source that there was “a “half sheep, half human” creature born to an adult sheep in the town of Sokoto, Nigeria!”
They even included this disturbing image:
From Weekly World News
Among the possible causes that Weekly World News mentions are “witchcraft or beastiality”. Both seem probable enough after looking at that picture. They even reported that locals were dismayed at the moral ramifications of such an “abomination.”
To their credit, not everybody believes that the culprit is a witch or pervert, or even that there is a “culprit” at all. A veterinarian with the Ministry of Forestry and Animal Health lamented these irrational and ill-informed conclusions as “embarrassing.”
They go on to list a number of illnesses, mutations, and pregnancy complications that could be to blame for this lamb’s deformity. Science has all the answers.
Almost all the answers. Why did Weekly World News publish that photo? Aside from being gross, it is certainly not the animal in question. They ran another picture that was also published by other news sources:
From Huffington Post
I guess Weekly World News just has a bunch of disturbing stock photos and figured “we won’t get too many chances to use this one, might as well use it now.”
And also, what kind of person reads this stuff? The answer to this may be in the comments section. A couple of people make jokes, showing that they take this all very lightly. For example:
Some people leave real comments, which may indicate that they take this too seriously:
But some comments are clearly the work of somebody who is not well:
Well, Mr. Foy, for what it is worth, the 93rd Annual Flowermart was held on the 7th and 8th of May, 2010. But why do you ask? And, more importantly, why ask as a comment to this article? What can the weather, a flower festival, and your dog’s birthday have to do with this story? Unless… how long would a half-man half-dog take to gestate? And what would you and a cute Pomeranian do if you were caught in the rain and surrounded by flowers?
Animal News: The Podcast 