Unhappy Woolies?

450 Sheep Jump to Their Deaths in Turkey

"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."

According to this page on animal totems, sheep medicine/strengths include:

Maintaining balance in dangerous situations
Confidence in ones abilities
Fertility
Courage needed to maintain balance
New beginnings
Abundance
Assurance in new areas

So what does a mass suicide imply?

The weirdest part of that article, to me, is this bit:

"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..."

What weird imagery.

I rather like sheep. Anyone who shares my sentiment might want to check out A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. It makes for VERY WEIRD reading.

Comments

[iggir]

Murakami rocks...have you read "Dance, Dance, Dance"? it's a the sequel to "Wild Sheep Chase" and one of my favorite books of all time.

"Wind-up Bird" is also very, very good. though a tad longer than some of his other works, it remains hallucinogenic throughout (a quality i admire).

[laura jane]

no, i haven't! but i will, now that i know it exists.

i just started 'kafka on the shore' .. only about 90 pages in but it's really cool so far.

i love his protagonists.. they're sort of sulky and weird.

[occult investigator]

Wait, isn't the JOB of a shepherd to protect sheep? What the hell were these dudes doing, just watching?

[laura jane]

yeah, i know.. i mean i guess they decided breakfast was more important.

[P-Tar]

Here's a trick: if sheep are all walking in a line, put a stick in the lead sheep's path. He jumps over it. Now, remove the stick, and each sheep will jump right where the stick WAS.

So, Sheep #1 says, "I'm gonna jump over a cliff." So, sheep #2 says, "Well, I'd better follow him..." and so on. Domesticated stock animals aren't bred for brightness.

Tim: that's what "Babe" is supposed to be for. Clearly, the pig dropped the ball.