By Tim Binnall
In a wild story out of India, a menacing troop of monkeys has declared war on a village's dog population and residents believe that the bizarre campaign of violence is being driven by revenge. According to a local media report, the site of the very strange conflict is the small community of Lavool, which is home to approximately 5,000 people. Around three months ago, villagers say, an incident occurred wherein an infant monkey was killed by some dogs and the fatal encounter sparked a thirst for revenge from the other simians living in the area. Since that time, it is claimed that a staggering 250 puppies have been killed by marauding troops of monkeys that snatch the unfortunate animals and drop them from great heights.
As one might imagine, residents of Lavool have grown fed up with their community being at the center of the interspecies war and turned to the country's forestry department for help. While workers have since captured two monkeys thought to be a part of the unsettling acts of aggression against the dogs, the agency stopped short of ascribing the strangeness to revenge. Acknowledging this belief among residents, an official told an area media outlet that "we do not have any proof to back up this theory. Its animal behavior and we cannot ascertain why they are behaving like this."
This stance was echoed by a local official in the village, who indicated that "to some extent, the news is true," but stressed that the actual number of puppies killed by the monkeys is uncertain as is the reason for the unnerving series of attacks. To that end, it has also been revealed that tales of the monkeys tossing the poor pups from great heights may be more of a product of the rumor mill as the sinister simians are said to more frequently opt for what might be the more monstrous methodology of bringing the young animals to rooftops and leaving them there where they eventually die of starvation. Those gruesome details aside, residents understandably just want the war to end and hope that the capture of the two monkeys may bring about some kind of peace between the creatures.