Kyrgyzstan Sheep Will Get Passports

Nation of 5 million humans will track 4.25 million animals
By Marie Morris,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 2, 2010 12:46 PM CST
Kyrgyzstan Sheep Will Get Passports
A Kyrgyz boy tends to his sheep as he waits for customers at a street market outside Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Wednesday, July 22, 2009.   (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

Kyrgyzstan is about to launch a program that will issue passports to millions of residents of the largely rural country—its 4.25 million sheep. "From their birth to their slaughter, it will be possible to recognize a sheep's pedigree by using laser scanning," the first deputy PM told parliament. Another government official likes the idea so much he wants it extended to cows, AFP reports. Sheep are vital to the economy of the mountainous country, which has a human population of about 5 million. (More Kyrgyzstan stories.)

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