WAKE COUNTY, N.C. — It appears wild dogs killed livestock at a Wake County emu farm over the weekend.

Farmer Wade Davis said he lost almost his entire stock of birds.

Davis said that he returned from church Sunday morning to find his business ripped to pieces and his loving pets lifeless.

Davis started his emu farm eight years ago as a way to raise retirement money, but the business soon grew to be a labor of love.

He believes a pack of dogs killed the birds, which cannot fly. Emus can kill a full-grown mountain lion in the wild, but the emus on Davis' farm never learned those survival skills.

"You get attached to them I guess like any pet," he said. "I guess now I should of raised them to be violent, but that wasn't my nature."

In fact, male emus sit on the nest and will not move from them, making them easy targets.

Davis believes a pit bull and a rottweiler mix were involved in the attack. Four adult birds and several babies were killed. He said that the financial loss could be as high as $10,000.