Here's why a French school enrolled 15 sheep after checking their birth certificates

Fifteen sheep were signed up as the latest recruits at a primary school in the French Alps on Tuesday after parents feared falling pupil numbers would see some classes closed. 

The move came after the school in Crêts en Belledonne, a village at the foot of the Alps, was told one of its 11 classes would be closed after numbers fell from 266 to 261. 

On Tuesday morning, a local herder and his dog came to school with some 50 sheep in tow, 15 of whom were "officially" registered after showing their birth certificates. 

Added to register was a pupil called "Baa-bete" and another called "Saute-Mouton" -- the sheepish equivalent of 'leapfrog' -- in a comic ceremony watched by children, parents and teachers. 

"Now we won't have to close any classes," smiled Gaelle Laval, one of the parents behind the initiative, who accused the national education authority of being more concerned about numbers than about the children's welfare. 

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Earlier, in a divided America where politics seems increasingly to get people's goat, a small town in Vermont has taken the concept to heart -- this week electing one as mayor. He may be a political novice but the goat's name, Lincoln, brings with it a storied pedigree.

And the leading human official in Fair Haven -- population about 2,500 -- hopes the long-eared, three-year-old animal's election can serve as a bit of a lesson in democracy.

In Tuesday's poll, Lincoln was victorious over 15 other candidates including Crystal the gerbil and many dogs and cats.

Fair Haven has no official mayor but the Town Manager, Joseph Gunter, holds similar functions.

When Gunter read in a newspaper that the village of Omena, Michigan, had made Sweet Tart the cat its "top" official, he got the idea to organize a similar election to raise funds for building a playground.

Lincoln's 13 votes were enough for him to squeak past Sammie the dog.

The goat, which belongs to a school math teacher, will get an education in the town's major festivals which it will represent during its one-year mandate: "Memorial Day parade, the Apple Fest and the events we organize every Friday in the summer," Gunter says.