On 4^th October 2014, the police were informed about a small ram who was roaming around a small German village near the highway. As a result, the police asked the nearby animal shelter in Ruesselsheim for help.

Two employees made their way to the highway and tried to catch the ram – they named him Hector. Hector was so distraught that it was almost impossible to approach him. He kept moving along the roadway and the policemen were instructed to shoot him if he was to ran onto the highway and human life was endangered. A local resident was now guarding the little ram and agreed with the police that everything should be done to keep him alive.

Hector is an extremely lucky ram, as a nearby animal park, who had a tranquilizer gun, offered their help. Thus, Hector was sedated and housed in the pheasantry for the time being. Now that he had fought so bravely for his life, it was decided to find a forever-home for him. For many years there has been a friendly contact between the Ruesselsheim animal shelter and TIERART Wild Animal Sanctuary and so we immediately agreed to offer Hector a permanent home.

In the meantime, the police had identified the sheep slaughterer as the official owner on the basis of the slaughter tag and, unfortunately, the manager of the animal park had already returned the little guy without consulting anyone involved. This became clear only late in the evening by an email.

Originally, Hector came from Bavaria, where he was sold to a butcher. But Hector had other ideas, and the small defensible ram escaped from the farm, thus just escaped the death that was intended for him.

The animal-lovers were still determined to fine a way to save Hector. The very next morning they called the butcher, and fortunately, the buck was still alive. They explained to the butcher that a good place had been found for Hector, who had fought so hard for his life, and that they would like to buy his freedom.

The butcher agreed to give the little ram away. The money was privately pooled by employees of the Ruesselsheim animal shelter and so Hector was freed again for 150€.

Hector finally made the journey to Maßweiler in a small bus loaded with hay and food. Once here, he was temporarily housed in a large clean barn with two rams as companions for the night and he was to be castrated the next day. However, the breakaway king pushed open the barn door at night and happily went out to pasture with the rest of the flock. In the morning the little Houdini had to be caught again.

In the meantime, Hector has been castrated and is enjoying his new life in the midst of our flock of sheep. A wonderful story with a happy ending!