THE leader of an anti-dog mess group has launched a scathing attack on a mystery person who has ripped down all their campaign posters around Stow-on-the-Wold.

Earlier this month, posters displaying messages on signs such as ‘Paw and Order - If you don’t pick up your dog’s excrement it’s a £1,000 fine’ were shared around the town.

But within days the posters were taken down, despite given the go-ahead by the Committee of Advertising Practice and Advertising Standards Authority.

The posters removed included ones placed on dog and waste bins around the town, that thanked responsible dog owners for using the bins.

The anonymous spokesman of the group, calling themselves DT Alfa-Male said: “I find this attempt to disrupt the campaign wholly offensive.

"Who on earth would want to take the time to remove the posters?

"All we are attempting to do is to clean up the town for the benefit of all our residents and visitors."

The leader of the group, made up of Stow-on-the-Wold residents, said that the action to thwart their campaign had made them 'even more determined to stamp out the problem'.

"We will step up the campaign and add weight to the campaign by giving away 1,000 free compostable dog poop bags via dispensers secured to a network of new posters around the town," the leader said.

"This considered approach covers the three key factors in dog waste management namely - awareness in the creative content, removal and containment via free poop bags and disposal in the network of bins provided by the local council, it’s that simple.

"Thankfully most dog owners are responsible and clean up after their dogs.

"We find it very frustrating when a small percentage of anti-social dog owners who openly break the law and gives all dog owners a bad name.

"If these posters and free poop bags are removed as well, we all might as well just give up come to terms of certain death by drowning in a sea of unwelcome and unnecessary dog excrement and rename our lovely town 'Stood-on- the-Turd'."

The Cotswold Dog Turdinator has been designed as a superhero character ‘fighting the evil of dog poop’ and a dedicated twitter account has also been set up, @DogTurdinator.