A new charity event is taking place in the most unusual circumstances as one of New Zealand’s casinos are raising awareness for depleting wool stocks in New Zealand, with a bizarre sheep shearing bingo game that is taking place in the car park of The Mero Bingo Hall in Rolleston, Christchurch.

In a one-off special event. 90 sheep will be numbered and randomly called out, replacing the balls which are often associated with the game.

Each of the sheep will be sheared as their numbers are called out. The more sheep sheered, the larger the charitable donation will be after the result of the game.

It’s expected to be a three-hour event that will provide free drinks for all participating players. Bingo cards are expected to be valued at $10 each with prizes for winners included.

Steve Gaynor, manager of the bingo hall was quoted as saying: “it seemed like the logical option. New Zealand’s wool stock isn’t in the best shape, so we wanted to provide a venue that will help to raise awareness of this fact. We hope many people attend the event and come down to what is something very special for the town of Rolleston, that all the family can enjoy.”

The sheep on show are provided by farmer John Pilkington. “It all began with how all good ideas begin, a few tins and a lot of spare time.” Farmer John Pilkington has been raising livestock in Rolleston for over 90-years through his family’s business, so he wanted to give something new to the community. “I figured that this was the most sensible way to go about getting the message out about the situation. The bingo is popular and given that the sheep are already numbered it seemed to be that fate made this happened.”

This is not the first odd event that has taken place in Christchurch, back in 1986 the Golden Palace casino once had a similar idea, though non-charitable. For a week, the casino was using turtles as a replacement for cards. The animals would be painted with the number of the card on its belly. Over 10,000 Eastern Mud Turtles were imported to make the event possible. The event only lasted two-days as disease soon spread amongst players. The turtles were then executed by firing squad to protect the spread of infection.

The sheep-shearing event takes place on 17^th April 2020 from 2 pm onwards.