Harlan Thompson (David McCallum) is the head of the biology department at Southwestern University, a small school located in an isolated southern California town.
Though he dresses casually and socializes with the students, he is frequently at odds with his fellow professors and the administrators, viewing them as shallow, elitist snobs who are more interested in status than education.
However, he takes a semi-liking to a young and newly hired biology professor, Michael Fitzgerald (George Wyner), and tries to stop him from being sucked into the system.
Larry says that he is going to wait with a rifle and shoot the animals who have been killing his cows if they return.
Disregarding a warning from Harlan, Larry goes ahead with his plan and is killed by a pack of dogs.
The pheromones may be coming from a top-secret government experiment being conducted at a linear accelerator near the school.
Harlan and Michael share their conclusion with the SU president, Dr. Martin Koppelman (Sterling Swanson), and ask him to warn people to keep their dogs home at night.
Sheriff Jimmy Goodman (Eric Server) discourages them, but they insist, and he ends up joining them.
Harlan and Michael attempt to perform a pheromone experiment on a dog inside a plastic encasement.
After suffering severe injuries, he stops the attack by picking up his gun and shooting the dog, but collapses and dies upon reaching his car.
He tells them about the dog attacks, that he will walk them over to the library in five minutes, and that the campus will be evacuated in the morning.
One of the dogs grabs Harlan by the leg and starts to pull on him, but he is rescued by Caroline and the two take refuge in the car.
Back at SU, Michael and Howard are close to the library when they find two of the students dead.
However, a large dog jumps on him, knocking him through the glass door, and allowing the pack to enter.
Seeing a college police car on the side of the road, they stop and see three dead bodies, one of them being Michael.
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film zero stars out of four, noting that every dog attack scene was "photographed the same way" and writing that "we are supposed to believe that our own little pets can become unhinged killers when they smell something.
"[1] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "the latest exploitation picture in which beasts turn upon men.
Along with the obligatory grisly special effects this efficiently made little film generates a fair amount of tension and is reasonably diverting.