BISHKEK (AFP) – Ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan is preparing to roll out a new system under which the millions of sheep residing in the mountainous state will receive their own high-tech passport, state television reported early this week.

First Deputy Prime Minister Akylbek Japarov said in an address to parliament the government has drafted a bill to deliver a cutting-edge passport to the nation’s sheep.

“We are ready to make a passport for each sheep. That is, from their birth to their slaughter, it will be possible to recognize a sheep’s pedigree by using laser scanning,” he said.

Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished Central Asian country bordering China and Kazakhstan, is home to 4.25 million sheep, according to official government statistics.

Dzhalalidin Gaybulin, head of the National Center of Quarantine and Infectious Diseases of the Ministry of Health, told reporters the passports would help contain disease and urged authorities to go one step further.

“In Kyrgyzstan, every cow must obtain a passport in order to prevent the spread of dangerous infection to humans,” he said.

The proposal also includes a system of insurance for sheep, which can be a major source of income for families in the mostly rural country.

Nepal red cross 'hires' stray dog as guard

KATHMANDU (AFP) – The Nepal Red Cross Society has voted to pay a monthly “salary” to a wounded stray dog that has taken on the job of guarding its office.

NRCS president Man Bahadur Budathoki said the dog had turned up at the organization’s premises in the east of the country last month and remained there ever since, barking at any stranger who approached.

The NRCS working committee voted on Sunday to pay it 1,000 rupees ($14) a month – plus overtime for weekends.

“The dog is doing such a great job that we might even get rid of our night guard,” Budathoki told AFP.

“We will use the money to buy it good food and it will have meat at least once a day. It will also be given milk and biscuits, which it seems to really like. We want to inspire other people to treat dogs well.”

Budathoki said staff at the Red Cross had taken pity on the dog, a large black mongrel, when it arrived wounded on their doorstep.

Tens of thousands of stray dogs wander the streets of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, where most people consider them a pest.