Maybe they lost a bet with the lemmings?

[VulcanRider]

450 Turkish Sheep Leap to Their Deaths

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 (search), located in Van province (search) in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP (search) 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."

Why would they do it? I don't know anything about them but I never dreamed they were that dumb...

P.S. Ya know, I'd have paid 10 bucks to see that. Where's a webcam when you *really* need one?

[Ivelliis]

That's really strange, but here is an artists impression:

[Iron Greasel]

I would really like to feel sorry for those poor shepherds, but the mental image of halfteen thousand sheep walking towards a cliff and jumping off is somehow amusing. Maybe I just am a sick and sadistic person who finds enjoymend in unnecessary suffering of defenseless animals.

And I *love* that artists impression.