Thousands of shepherds travel from rural areas to Bucharest to protest against law limiting number of dogs that can guard their sheep

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

More than 1,000 shepherds have broken through police lines into the grounds of Romania’s parliament to protest against a law that regulates the number of sheepdogs they can use.

Riot police fired teargas at the shepherds, some of whom were dressed in floor-length sheepskins and blew horns, to keep them from charging at the parliament building.

Some 4,000 shepherds had travelled from rural parts of Romania on Tuesday for the protest in Bucharest. They are angry about a law that will limit the number of dogs that can guard their sheep, as well as a ban on grazing from December to April.

The law is intended to protect hunters and the environment. There are 10 million sheep and 1.5 million goats in Romania.