dog attack
© Josh Plueger/ Wikimedia
A band of unruly dogs has been attacking a small town in Brittany for over a year, killing dozens of farm animals and pushing the locals to take radical steps.

The town of Bazouges-la-Pérouse, between Rennes and Saint-Malo, and its 2,000 inhabitants have suffered around 20 attacks on chickens, rabbits, goats and even cows.

In just a year, the pack of dogs ate 12 of one farmer's cows, and another lost 14 out of 17 geese.

And the town has had enough.

The mayor, who knows who the dogs' owners are, has taken to patrolling the village in his car at night, lying in wait for the dogs and hoping to build up evidence against their owners.

"I do this every night, seven days out of seven," mayor Pascal Hervé told France Bleu radio.

Some owners have received fines and others have been convicted, but the terrorisation hasn't stopped.

Inhabitants, "pushed to their limits" according to the mayor, are starting to take matters into their own hands, and hunters have tried to install traps for the dogs.

Dog owners are now fearing their own pets could get caught up in the town's hunt for the guilty canines.

"Things are getting really bad," one inhabitant, Florian, told France Bleu. "My dog or my neighbour's dog could be targeted even though they have nothing to do with it."

Mayor Hervé plans to deliver a ruling against dogs roaming the streets. Ouest France newspaper reports that he plans to allow "shooting down the dogs".

However Hervé strongly contests this is what he said after receiving a torrent of outrage from the public and animal rights groups.