Wild Dogs Are Taking Over Detroit »^.,.^« Packs of wild, abandoned dogs are roaming the streets of Detroit, leaving city officials overwhelmed at the prospect of handing an issue that raises both animal rights and safety concerns. “It was almost post-apocalyptic, where there are no businesses, nothing except people in houses and dogs running around,” the Humane Society of the United States director Amanda Arrington told Bloomberg News about a recent visit to Detroit. “The suffering of animals goes hand in hand with the suffering of people.” Bloomberg reports that packs of the dogs have been spotted in groups as large as 20. Local shelters say they are forced to euthanize about 70 percent of the dogs that are brought it, and their facilities are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of abandoned and stray animals. As far back as 2003, National Geographic reported the growing number of feral dogs in Detroit. The city says there were 903 reported dog bites last year, including a woman who had her scalp bitten off by two strays. Attacks have become so prevalent that the U.S. Postal Service has temporarily halted delivery to some of Detroit’s neighborhoods after 25 carriers reported being bitten by dogs from October 2012 through July 2013, the story notes. “With these large open expanses with vacant homes, it’s as if you designed a situation that causes dog problems,” Harry Ward, head of the city’s animal control department, told Bloomberg. Ward says the problem is compounded by the fact that his department’s budget has been slashed while the number of stray dogs has skyrocketed. According to Ward, he has four officers to cover all 139 square miles of his department’s jurisdiction and only one employee to deal with dog-bite investigations. When he started the job in 2008, Ward said the city had 15 officers and four dog-bite investigators. news.yahoo/blogs/sideshow/50-000-abandoned-dogs-roaming-streets-of-detroit-in-packs-leaving-city-officials-overwhelmed-220610479.html
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 05:59:35 +0000
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