Riot police fired teargas at the shepherds, some of whom were dressed in floor-length sheepskins and blew horns, to keep them from charging at the parliament building.
Some 4,000 shepherds had travelled from rural parts of Romania on Tuesday for the protest in Bucharest. They are angry about a law that will limit the number of dogs that can guard their sheep, as well as a ban on grazing from December to April.
The law is intended to protect hunters and the environment. There are 10 million sheep and 1.5 million goats in Romania.
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