By Richard Savill
Published: 1:39PM BST 12 May 2008
The owners of Chilli, a black and white Friesian steer, believe he may be the tallest bovine in Britain.
Naomi Clarke, care manager of the Ferne Animal Sanctuary in Chard, Somerset, who raised the bullock, said: “As he was growing up we began noticing that he was bigger than our other cattle.
Despite his size, Miss Clarke described him as being “very friendly and gentle.”
The steer grazes on grass during the day and enjoys the occasional swede as a treat. A farmer abandoned him and his twin sister Jubilee on the sanctuary's doorstep in September 1999, when he was six days old. The sanctuary named him Chilli because it already had a cow called Chutney.
Photo: BNPS
He would normally have been on a farm and slaughtered for meat at an early age. But because he has been in a sanctuary he has lived to the age of nine.
Miss Clarke said: “As the years passed we noticed he was getting rather tall.
”Although he weighs over a ton he is quite lean and not as fat as some of his companions. We don't know what has made him so tall. He doesn't eat that much and Jubilee is 6ft in comparison. His feet and head are in proportion; he is just very large.”
