Lamb Born With 7 Legs in New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A lamb born with seven legs will have to be euthanized, local media reported Thursday.

The animal has three hind legs, two forelegs and two extra legs that hang useless behind its forelegs.

Veterinarian Steve Williams at the Canterbury Vets clinic in the rural town of Methven said the lamb, born Friday, also was missing a portion of its bowel and so would have to be destroyed.

"To keep it alive is probably inhumane really," Williams told the Ashburton Guardian newspaper.

Williams said he believed an error during embryo formation had resulted in the lamb being born polydactyl _ with many legs _ a condition that occurs once in several million sheep.

Dave Callaghan said he was surprised the find the seven-legged lamb on his farm along with its mother and normal twin sibling.

"I have never seen anything like that," he said.