The lamb with human face

[Z...]

Is this story carried recently on SOTT page a hoax?

I would say yes.

You can see a bigger picture here
_http://technabob.com/blog/2010/01/15/sheep-gives-birth-to-human-faced-lamb/ and it doesn't look at all convincing. At least to me. On the contrary it looks as feeble attempt.

The "face of the lamb" looks more like stylized human face from ancient Greek theater masks then anything else.

Also the alleged connection between vitamin A and mutation doesn't make any sense

 

[Buddy]

I don't know if it's a hoax or not, but what stuck out for me was the automatic assumption of a mutation within the natural evolutionary process, or bestiality.

In other words, whose to say some kind of genetic 'experimentation' isn't going on by unnamed 'persons' keen to see what happens with the birth as well as what happens with people upon discovery? Or maybe some other scenario entirely?

I found it difficult to try and seperate what my imagination might be filling in while looking at the photo...similar to that famous photo of "the face on Mars" thing. :)

 

[Z...]

Well hopefully we will find out.
I've managed to find contact details of the Turkish vet who allegedly delivered this baby. So the veterinarian with this name does exist.
Hopefully he will reply.

The story really tickled my imagination, and even more so the sub-story about baby goat from Africa. Nevertheless I find them both very unlikely to be true.

 

[Biomiast]

Just in case he doesn't know English, you can post your letter here, I can translate and send it to him.

 

[Z...]

That would be lovely.
Thanks.
I found him on the face book.
Lets see if he replies anything.
In the meantime - did you hear anything in local media?
Is it a common thing for rural veterinary practices in Turkey to have anesthesia machine?

 

[Biomiast]

Well, there isn't much information about the subject. One thing that I found which isn't mentioned in Sott article was that, the vet assisted the birth of two lambs from two different mothers. One of them is the one with human face, the other is fairly normal except that both of those lambs were odd-toed, even though normal lambs are even-toed. I think this led the vet to think there are mutations involved because of environmental factors. He states in some articles that two lambs were from different mothers and fathers, the only thing they have in common is their owner.

He thinks the owner used too much Vitamin A which may be a teratogen(the chemical that cause mutations and harm in fetus) in higher doses. After a research about teratogenic effects of Vitamin A, many things pop up, I think it may be a reasonable and rational explanation. At least it is better than what governor said:

The governor of the province where the ugly goat was born said that the little goat was the fruit of unnatural relationship between the female goat and a man.

"This incident is very shocking. It is my first time to see such an evil thing. It is really embarrassing," he reportedly said. "The head belongs to a man while the body is that of a goat. This is evident that an adult human being was responsible.

As for your second question, I couldn't find anything on internet, but I have sent an e-mail to some vets to see if they know anything about this.

Just my two cents, fwiw.

 

[Z...]

Well if you ask me, teratogenic effect of vit A is one thing, but causing mutation that would result in formation of some sort of chimera as is allegedly the case here, in my opinion is simply impossible

 

[truth seeker]

Whatever the true story is, that picture sent chills down my spine. It's a shame they had to kill it however, if that is indeed the truth.

 

[Tigersoap]

It may be fake, the face is indeed looking quite "masky" but...

I found this blog article here which leads to the following links

_http://xenophilius.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/sheep-gives-birth-to-human-faced-lamb/


The original article in Turkish (for those who can read it, I can't ;))

_http://www.cnnturk.com/2010/yasam/diger/01/11/izmirde.insan.basli.oglak.dogdu/558834.0/index.html

and this very similar story that follows the same plotline here :

Goat with a human head (disturbing picture yet again)

_http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-912-Exclusive%20Pictures%20The%20human%20goat/news.aspx

In both stories, there is the exact same accusation of bestiality and the locals burned the body before anyone could take a sample of these creatures...

*insert sherlock holmes emoticon*

 

[Z...]

Well the story seems to be true!
Maybe this could be a good lesson that not all images we see on the internet and which look obviously fake are indeed fake.

In any case Erhan is not imaginary person. We have become face book friends which means I was able to confirm he really exist, he is a real veterinarian and I was also able to see impressive collection of the "Pan child" photos all of which is pretty convincing These can be seen on you tube link posted bellow.
Of course there is always remote possibility he has staged all this but I doubt it.
Short of any scientific explanations I can only say - perhaps this is the message from above saying - humans are indeed sheeple!

So this is our correspondence:

Hi ______, yes i m the vet that made C/S. normal birth date delayed and i decided to make C/S. İt s a saenen sheep, when i thought about the alternatives can cause this situation it seemed that vit a. u know it has teratogenic effects including hipoplasia of chin and maxilla, small ears , failure forming osteogenic tissue which changes from cartilage. İn fact it seemed like a pan a creature from greek mythology. more pic. are in my facebook page u can see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB1G9LUSK4c
here's the youtube link

Your theory about vitA is the only available scientific explanation, but do you really think that almost perfectly formed features of human face could be result of teratogenic effect. I personally doubt it.
By the way what happened with the body? Did you send it to some institute for pathology? It would be a pity not to have finding like this properly recorded.

 

[anart]

Regarding the comment in the article that it was due to a human male inseminating the sheep, it's not actually possible for a human to impregnate a sheep, is it? What I mean is, it isn't possible for human sperm to fertilize a sheep egg, is it?

 

[Laura]

I don't think so. But you never know.

I don't think that such a face is really evidence of humanness, either. I've seen images of deformed human babies that looked totally animal like so there's no reason that there can't be animals that go the other way. And when you consider the amount of DNA we share with even fruit flies, well... anything can happen if the genes get confused at some point.

 

[Z...]

In both stories, there is the exact same accusation of bestiality and the locals burned the body before anyone could take a sample of these creatures...

*insert sherlock holmes emoticon*

Unfortunately bestiality with sheep and goats is quite a common occurrence in many remote parts of the world. In fact - you don't have to go to the mountains, I know of well documented case from metropolitan zoo where keeper abused zebras. This would probably go unnoticed if zoo vet didn't diagnose bacteria that cause syphilis in humans.

Perhaps the villagers were so hasty to get rid of the bodies because those of them guilty of this sin couldnt bare to look at - what they understood as material evidence of their perversion.

Just saw anart's question - no its impossible - different number of chromosomes.

 

[Laura]

Just saw anart's question - no its impossible - different number of chromosomes.

I was pretty sure that was the case, thanks.

As for it really looking "human," I actually could see that it looked like a really deformed sheep face. The "human appearance" was just accidental, like seeing the image of Jesus on your toast.

 

[Z...]

I don't think that such a face is really evidence of humanness, either.

Well if you look at the kid goat from link tigersoap provided I totally agree with you. That looks like your typical monster or result of teratogenic effect of any etiology.
But this "Pan's child"- there is something eerie or unnatural about it, very human like ( notice perfectly developed cheek bones and lips ) and unlike any natural monstrosity I have ever seen.