SPRING VALLEY, Wi – The sun's out and this means it's time for people to whip out the sunscreen. There's nothing like a good dose of SPF to protect your skin from the UV rays.
Just like people, Al, a calf in Spring Valley, Wisconsin needs a little SPF, as well. That's because Al, short for Al Bundy, is an albino calf.
Owners Tina and Mitch Vanasse said Al was born during the spring snowstorm in mid-April.
Tina was doing the rounds checking on the cows when she said she saw a strange clump of snow. That "clump" turned out to be Al, curled up into a little ball.
"Well, what I thought was a clump of snow," Tina Vanasse said with a laugh. "As I got closer, turned out it was a calf. It kind of turned and looked at me."
That's when she saw his non-pigmented eyes, pink eyelids and equally pink nose. That was the moment Al captured the Vanasses' hearts.
After his birth, Tina Vanasse said she did some research on albinism in cows. She even said she called up a University of Minnesota professor.
"He said he didn't have much for statistics but it was very odd or rare to get that," Tina Vanasse said.
Mitch Vanasse explained that they like breeding cows for their different color outcomes.
Al's father is a Hereford bull and his mother is a Shorthorn. Neither one of them is white.