pack of 200 wild dogs attack town in Albania

TIRANA (Reuters) - An Albanian town had to call in police and hunters after a pack of 200 stray mountain dogs attacked at least nine people.

Headed by a clearly identifiable leader, the snarling pack overran the main street of the small northern town of Mamurras, its mayor said Wednesday.

"Even in the movies I have never seen a horde of 200 stray dogs from the mountains attacking people in the middle of a town," Anton Frroku told Reuters by telephone Wednesday.

full story
story.news.yahoo.com.../nm/20041013/od_nm/odd_albania_dogs_dc

This is a very creepy tale, animals everywhere are acting out of character and oddly, turning up in odd places and exhibiting strange behaviour.
Keep your eyes open

Actually it doesn't suprise me that much. I mean yes it's bizarre to imagine 200 wild dogs pouring out of the mountains, but I don't find it as being "unnatural."

Found another article online that states that there are 100 wild dogs that hang out at the airport in Albania. And if I recall correctly, Greece had to put down some 10,000 stray dogs in preparations for the olympics. So obviously numbers aren't an issue.

Regarding the pack and leader. Dogs are social animals. In a pack, there is always an alpha male. So no suprise there.

So the unnatural behavior is the dogs attacking the town? Well 200 dogs are probably desperate and starving. It would not suprise me at all that they would come into a human town looking for food...see above link for 100 dogs that hang out at the airport. Once in town is it that unlikely for a dog to attack someone? If you were a starving dog with 200 buddies backing you up, that plump little Albanian boy might start looking awfully tasty. That's the whole idea behind a pack mentality, being able to take down larger prey cooperatively.

Summary. Cool post, was a good read and I'd have never seen it otherwise. Bizzare, but not unnatural.

Just read an article from Moscow declaring that they have on average 5people a year killed by packs of wild dogs.....these wild dogs are not native to moscow and they have been seen exhibiting above average intelligence. They can be often found travelling on the metro routes from one part of town, 2 another. The article estimated the figure of these wild pack dogs at nearly 100,000. Thats a lot of wild dogs to have in any large western or eastern city.

Expect this one to go into web-related, as mountain dogs aren't cryptids...

Weird occurance though, to be sure...

Do stray cats do the same thing..im not sure if i would prefer to be attacked by 20 dogs or 20 cats.That would be mental. What all the animals started attacking us! We would have to declare war on nature...o wait we already have.