Hundreds of sheep have died in Australia after becoming heavily addicted to a poisonous plant.
800 sheep are reported to have died as a result of the addiction to a weed known as darling pea in new South Wales. The plant is from the Swainsona species, and is a stout-stemmed plant with purple pea-shaped flowers and long woolly pods.
When addicted, the sheep as if they have a heroin addiction, by dramatically losing weight, dragging their feet, and becoming depressed. Most disturbingly, some sheep were reported to smack their heads against rocks until they cracked open and died.
Farmer Louise Knight told local newspaper The Land:
“They just go to a post and bang their head on it till they crack their heads open; it’s like dealing with a thousand heroin addicts”
The only way for farmers to treat the addicted sheep, is to physically separate them from areas where the weed grows and make the sheep go cold turkey off the drug.
