550 sheep were killed by a single lightning strike while grazing in a mountain pasture in Ninotsminda, South Georgia. The authorities refused to pay compensation and are demanding expert confirmation from the herders that the cause of the death of the animals was precisely the lightning strike.
On August 9, Nikolai Levanov, a sheep owner from the village of Tambovka, received a wake-up call from his shepherd, who informed him that hundreds of his sheep had died in a thunderstorm. Fortunately, the shepherd himself was not hurt.
Shocking footage filmed at the site of the extremely strange phenomenon shows hundreds of sheep carcasses scattered across a green pasture on Mount Abul, a popular sheep grazing site in southern Georgia.
Levanov and other sheep owners who grazed in the flock turned to the Georgian authorities for financial help to mitigate their losses, but the official response was that the scientific commission must first establish the exact cause of the death of the sheep.
"To be honest, this is the first such case. We have not heard that so many sheep could die because of a thunderstorm," said Deputy Mayor of Ninotsminda Alexander Mikeladze. "Of course, the mayor's office will provide support, but first the farmer himself must bring an expert opinion to pinpoint the cause of the mass death."
On August 12, it was announced that 550 sheep would be burnt on site, as the difficult terrain made it impossible to transport them from the mountain. It is not known if any compensation was paid to the owners.
