A five-legged lamb nicknamed “Fiver” was saved from the dinner table thanks to a one-in-a-million extra limb.

Fiver caused quite a sensation (轰动) when she was born on Andrew Bell’s farm near York. But shortly after she took her first unsteady steps — the lamb appeared destined for the knife.

Thankfully for Fiver it was the vet’s scalpel (手术刀) rather than the butcher’s knife.

Mr Bell’s vet daughter, Katy said neither she nor her father had ever seen a lamb like her before. She said, “We think the most likely reason for being born with an extra limb could be that she was trying to form a conjoined (连体的) twin but failed eventually.”

Ms Bell brought the family’s miracle lamb to her colleague Julian Norton, the star of Channel 5’s The Yorkshire Vet. Mr Norton cut off Fiver’s extra leg as it was making it hard for her to feed. She said, “We didn’t want her to look physically imperfect for too long, so we got the operation done within 20 minutes. It was very short but Fiver came through it and it was a success. Within a few hours she was back with her mum in the fields having fun like nothing had happened. We feel much honored to have experienced such a rare event.”

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this was certainly the case when Katy spotted Fiver. The animal lover could not bear the idea of the lamb being farmed out and offered up her home.

She said, “I immediately wanted to give her a forever home; she is such an amazing creature and I didn’t want her to end up on someone’s dinner plate.”

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