Riot police fire tear gas at protesting shepherds in Romania

Thousands of angry shepherds engaged in a tense stand-off with riot police outside Romania’s parliament building on Tuesday in protest at a law that restricts the number of sheepdogs they can use and bans them from grazing sheep during the winter.

Romanian authorities say the Carpathian shepherd dogs are aggressive and kill other wild animals such as deer and wild boar that are hunters’ favourites, while the grazing ban helps the environment.