Up to 50,000 wild dogs are roaming the streets:
Dens of as many as 20 canines have been found in boarded-up homes in the community of about 700,000 that once pulsed with 1.8 million people. One officer in the Police Department's skeleton animal-control unit recalled a pack splashing away in a basement that flooded when thieves ripped out water pipes.
“The dogs were having a pool party,” said Lapez Moore, 30. “We went in and fished them out.”
Poverty roils the Motor City and many dogs have been left to fend for themselves, abandoned by owners who are financially stressed or unaware of proper care. Strays have killed pets, bitten mail carriers and clogged the animal shelter, where more than 70 percent are euthanized.
“With these large open expanses with vacant homes, it’s as if you designed a situation that causes dog problems,” said Harry Ward, head of animal control.
The number of strays signals a humanitarian crisis, said Amanda Arrington of the Humane Society of the United States, based in Washington. She heads a program that donated $50,000 each to organizations in Detroit and nine other U.S cities to get pets vaccinated, fed, spayed and neutered.
Arrington said when she visited Detroit in October, “It was almost post-apocalyptic, where there are no businesses, nothing except people in houses and dogs running around.”
“The suffering of animals goes hand in hand with the suffering of people.”
She said pet owners who move leave behind dogs, hoping neighbors will care for them. Those dogs take to the streets and reproduce. Compounding that are the estimated 70,000 vacant buildings that provide shelter for dogs, or where some are chained without care to ward off thieves, Ward said.
I can't really see how Detroit battles this problem while there are 70,000 abandoned buildings, no money to pay the dogcatchers to round them up, and no place to put them once they are caught. Add to the fact that the dogs are probably reproducing as quickly (if not quicker) as they get caught or die off, and it is a recipe for disaster.
Do you tear down the abandoned buildings, eliminating shelter first, or try to round up as many as possible among the structures? A logistical, monetary, and timely challenge that Detroit has no answer for.
