[Mike]

450 Sheep Jump to Their Deaths in Turkey

The Associated Press
Friday, July 8, 2005; 9:30 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2005/07/08/AR2005070800553_pf.html

ISTANBUL, Turkey — First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned
Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had
breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off
the same cliff, Turkish media reported.

In the end, 450 dead animals lay on top of one another in a billowy
white pile, the Aksam newspaper said. Those who jumped later were
saved as the pile got higher and the fall more cushioned, Aksam
reported.

“There’s nothing we can do. They’re all wasted,” Nevzat Bayhan, a
member of one of 26 families whose sheep were grazing together in the
herd, was quoted as saying by Aksam.

The estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas, located in Van
province in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of
money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700.

“Every family had an average of 20 sheep,” Aksam quoted another
villager, Abdullah Hazar as saying. “But now only a few families have
sheep left. It’s going to be hard for us.”