Chambery acts to pacify pigeon assassins

A city under fire
With the rest of the country worrying about national strikes and economic penury, the people of Chambéry, the capital of Savoie, have weightier things on their minds - a proliferation of pigeons.

The visual destruction on the city's architecture from their feathered friends is so apparent that some residents have decided to take matters into their own hands - by taking pot shots at them. Worried by such developments, the city organised a pigeon census on October 26 2007, with 25 official 'pigeon counters' despatched onto the streets to assess the enemy numbers.

The bureaucrats were shocked by the results - only 1000 pigeons, before la service d'hygiène et de santé added another 1000 for good mesure, taking into account those pigeons who were either in flight or in hiding when suspicious looking types in trenchcoats and armed with clipboards took to the streets. The city are left perplexed by the disappearance of over a 1000 pigeons (since the last census), according to le dauphiné libéré.