posted on July 8, 2005 02:26:49 PM new
450 Sheep Jump to Their Deaths in Turkey
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - 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.''
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No, I'm saying -- I'm merely -- I'm saying what I'm saying. I don't know why I'm always having people say, are you trying to say -- you know what you can do if you want to know what I'm saying is listen to what I'm saying. What I'm saying is what I said ...
posted on July 8, 2005 02:33:08 PM new
They must have gotten word that Classic was in the area...
"I'm going to spend a lot of time on Social Security. I enjoy it. I enjoy taking on the issue. I guess, it's the Mother in me."—Guess Who? Washington D.C., April 14, 2005
posted on July 8, 2005 03:21:34 PM new
Makes me wonder where their dogs were...out to breakfast too, maybe. I once lost two dozen who were all huddled against a fence in a thunderstorm. The fence took a direct lightning hit, and fried them all. Losing the occasional animal to an act of nature is part of the territory, but it really hurts to lose a bunch of them at once.
BTW fenix, there are no cliffs in Texas, they were outlawed years ago by the cattle ranchers.
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Fue por lana y salió trasquilado...
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No, I'm saying -- I'm merely -- I'm saying what I'm saying. I don't know why I'm always having people say, are you trying to say -- you know what you can do if you want to know what I'm saying is listen to what I'm saying. What I'm saying is what I said ...
posted on July 9, 2005 03:47:58 AM new
I bet the "alpha sheep" looked to the clouds and saw one that looked like their god. They just wanted to check it out.
"It was crazy," said Turkish shepherd Nevzat Bayhan.
"First the leader said something about bringing democracy
to the Middle East, and then the rest jumped over the cliff
after him. We tried to warn them, but they just wouldn't
listen."
"We think they must have been American sheep," Bayhan
explained.
