Rome - Rome's cash-strapped city council has come up with a
novel idea to keep green spaces tidy: it will use sheep and cows to
trim overgrown grass.
Environment commissioner Pinuccia Montanari said Thursday that an
experiment with sheep is working well in the south-eastern Caffarella
park and will be expanded.
Speaking to InBlu radio, a Catholic station, Montanari noted that
Rome is home to one of the largest urban green spaces in Europe,
measuring 44 million square metres.
"Lacking resources and personnel, we have tried to find all possible
solutions," she said, adding that two council-owned farms could
provide the animals.
While the proposal was met with some scepticism by opposition
politicians and many commentators on social media, farming lobby
Coldiretti welcomed it.
"With 50,000 sheep being bred in Rome's municipality, the capital can
count on a real army of natural lawnmowners," the association said in
a statement.
Rome's council is overburdened with debts and struggling to deal with
several crises, including severely potholed roads and near-bankrupt
bus company ATAC, whose run-down vehicles regularly catch fire.