SHEEP TAKE OVER MADRID MAIN STREETS - In protest over loss of grassland and modern farming practices

Baa-d traffic! Tourist captures bizarre footage as 2,000 sheep herded through Madrid to celebrate ancient farming routes

Farmers claim ancient rights to move their sheep where fields once were

800-year-old grazing routes run through where Madrid now stands

2,000 sheep walk through Puerta del Sol, Madrid's version of Times Square

Tourists and locals line streets as performers accompany the sheep

Those feeling a bit woolly as they emerged on Sunday morning in Madrid may have got a shock to see a flock of 2,000 sheep parading through the city's streets.

 

The muster is part of a 700-year-old law that allows farmers to move their livestock through areas that were open pastures and woodland before modern day Madrid became a sprawling city.

 

With the tradition under threat due to modern farming practices, shepherds continue to lead their sheep through the streets to defend their ancient grazing, droving and migration rights.

 

 

In medieval times, Madrid was a landscape ripe with grazing land and woodland - some of the grazing routes date back to 1372 but have been blocked since King Philip II selected the site to be the capital of his empire in 1561.

 

Musicians and dancers in regional rural costumes accompanied the parade and showed the pride the Spanish take in their native Merino breed of sheep, originally from the historic Castile region of Spain and also Turkey. Now the breed is hugely important to the wool industries of South America and Australia.

Source
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2818633/Baa-d-traffic-Tourist-captures-bizarre-footage-2-000-sheep-herded-Madrid-celebrate-ancient-farming-routes.html

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