SNCF banks on sheep to keep grass trim
Two sheep have been installed next to a railway line in the heart of Paris so they can keep the grass banks tidy.
SNCF picked , a company specialising in 鈥渆co-grazing鈥�, as an environmentally-friendly solution to taking care of its green space in the 17th arrondissement.
The sheep, watched by shepherd Jojo, have set up home there.
GreenSheep founder Paul Letheux said: 鈥淭hey will stay three years, but usually it鈥檚 longer, as the contract is often renewed.鈥� A vet will check up on them from time to time as they watch trains going from Saint-Lazare to La D茅fense.
It is the expansion of an existing idea as the company鈥檚 sheep have already been living next to the Paris ring road for a number of years.
Initially, Mr Letheux studied landscape management but he thought about GreenSheep while taking care of a field near a farm in a rural village. He said: 鈥淲e thought about trying to put in sheep to cut the grass, and it worked so well that companies around the farm started to contact us.鈥�
The start-up owns more than 1,000 sheep and works in cities and rural areas around France.
They have only Ouessant sheep: 鈥淭hey are small, strong, they can stay outside all year long and do not easily get ill.鈥�
The firm also works with the Paris mairie, La Poste, L鈥橭r茅al, Veolia and D茅cathlon.
