When a South Australian man laid eyes on Joey the “unicorn” sheep he knew he couldn’t let such a rare animal end up on someone’s dinner plate.

Michael Foster is a stock agent but in all his years being around sheep he had never seen anything like Joey, he told Seven.

The unusual sheep has a horn growing from the middle of his head, making him look like a unicorn.

Joey’s mythical appearance comes from one of his horns not fully developing, making one a lot more prominent than the other.

“I thought it might have been a joke to start with, but I thought, ‘yeah it looks like a unicorn’,” he told the news station.

“To the best of our knowledge, it is the only one in Australia.”

When Mr. Foster found Joey he was destined for the barbecue but he knew this sheep was special and had to be saved.

So, in true Aussie form, Mr. Foster offered up two cartons of beer and got to take Joey home.

The unicorn sheep now lives as a beloved pet on Mr. Foster’s property in Burra.

Since being saved, Joey has become quite popular around town, with people often making comments about his unique look.

For the moment Joey is enjoying a quiet life running around with the rest of the sheep, but Mr. Foster told Seven he expects Joey will be a big star soon enough.

“We’ll break him in, take him to shows and pageants, and who knows where we can go, maybe Hollywood,” he said.

“I’m sure the kids will get a big kick out of patting a real-life unicorn, we might even do unicorn rides.”

This story originally appeared on news.com.au.