A shocking 272 sheep have been wiped out almost instantly in a freak event.
New farmers Kiyan and Tetiana Freedom began their venture into sheep farming on leased land in April this year. Disaster struck on the morning of Thursday, September 4, when Kiyan, while tending to his flock, witnessed the nearby river’s water level surge, quickly engulfing him up to waist height.
In a desperate bid to save his animals, Kiyan plunged underwater to rescue the floundering ewes and lambs. “In places the water was three metres (10ft) deep,” he recounted.
“With our bare hands we began rescuing the animals one by one.”
Kiyan, who previously worked as an international criminal barrister and escaped Iran due to fears for his safety, met and married Tetiana, a fellow refugee from Ukraine, in the UK. The pair made their home in Gowerton, near Swansea, as reported by NorthWalesLive.
Following a lung cancer diagnosis two years ago, Kiyan had to pause his legal career. Taking up sheep farming on rented land was part of the couple’s strategy to support his recovery.
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The surviving sheep huddled in shallower water (Image: undefined)
The duo acquired 600 ewes and lambs from local markets and prepared a shed with feed and hay in Pontyates village, close to Llanelli. Their rented pasture is intersected by the Afon Gwendraeth Fawr river.
Kiyan faced a terrifying ordeal on Thursday morning at 10.30am when, after collecting sheep feed for his field, he was caught in an unexpected deluge. “It was raining the night before – three or four hours of heavy rain,” he recounted.
“But the river was low. Then I hear a loud noise like a whooshing. I saw the water coming – it was destroying everything.”
He described the frantic moments that followed: “I had no time to think. In two minutes the water was coming up to my belly. It was a massive flood. Water rushed into our fields. It was coming from everywhere. I didn’t know why it was happening. Neighbours who lived here all their lives said they had never seen anything like it before.”
Kiyan’s efforts to rescue his livestock were harrowing: “I started diving under the water to save the sheep and the lambs. But it was too much – the flooding was going on for two or three miles.”
Some sheep made it to higher ground, others didn’t (Image: undefined)
In a desperate bid for help, Kiyan reached out to agricultural bodies and emergency services, urgently calling 999 to request the fire brigade’s presence.
Help arrived as two friends from Swansea and local volunteers joined the effort, bringing a tractor and a JCB excavator to retrieve both drowned and surviving sheep.
Kiyan vividly recalled the severity of the flood: “It was so deep,” he said. “The water was too high for the tractor – my neighbour was on the roof. I went in my Mitsubishi Shogun 4×4 and he jumped onto the roof. But my car is now destroyed.”
Landowner Bob Stratford, who leases the fields to Kiyan, suggested that poor river maintenance exacerbated the impact of the heavy rainfall, leading to the catastrophic flooding.
The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for rain in south Wales on Wednesday evening, followed by an alert for thunderstorms early Thursday morning.
Landowner Bob Stratford helped recover Kiyan’s drowned sheep in his tractor’s bucket loader (Image: undefined)
Mr Stratford recounted the tragic events: “River levels rise extremely quickly and then recede quickly too. I tried to warn Kiyan on Thursday morning but the water rose so rapidly he couldn’t get his sheep to safety.”
He continued, detailing the unfortunate circumstances: “Unfortunately he’d fenced off the river to stop the sheep getting to it. When the waters rose the sheep were driven against the fencing and the combined weight caused it to collapse. I’ll now be getting as many farmers as possible to a meeting to discuss what can be done to get the river dredged.”
Efforts to move the sheep to safety persisted past 7pm, by which time the floodwaters had started to subside. Amidst the aftermath, Kiyan and Tetiana worked tirelessly to care for the surviving animals.
Kiyan shared the grim reality: “Some are in bad condition,” and revealed the heartbreaking loss: “I rescued one from the water but it died last night. The local farmers are finding more sheep bodies and bringing them here. We have 272 dead sheep and lambs up to now. We counted the survivors but some are in a bad way.”
In a plea for assistance, he said: “I have asked for help from the authorities but we are getting so little. The fire service came in the end but now we are all on our own. I don’t know what to do.
Kiyan wrecked his Mitsubishi Shogun trying to rescue his sheep (Image: undefined)
“All of the lamb cake feed has gone. All the hay has gone. We need this for the winter. All the fencing around the field was destroyed by the floodwater. Our farm car is gone.”
Farmers are legally required to arrange for the removal of deceased livestock from their land, as burying them on-site is prohibited. However, Kiyan expressed that he might have no other option.
“We have so many dead bodies,” he lamented. “The knacker people said it will be £20 per head. When I told them what happened. They said: ‘Okay, £15’. But that will still be £4,000 to £5,000. We also need medicines for the sheep. Where are we getting the money for this? I have no idea.”
On Saturday, two local farmers came back to assist in gathering all the carcasses for disposal – a mix of Welsh, Texel, and Easycare breeds.
“We were very happy to see them,” Kiyan admitted. “But we still need advice and help for this kind of situation.”
