Up To 50,000 Stray Dogs Roam Detroit

As many as 50,000 stray dogs roam the streets and vacant homes of bankrupt Detroit, replacing residents, menacing humans who remain and overwhelming the city’s ability to find them homes or peaceful deaths, reports Bloomberg.

Bloomberg continues:

In July, the pound stopped accepting more animals for a month because the city hadn’t paid a service that hauls away euthanized animals for cremation at a cost of about $20,000 a year. The freezers were packed with carcasses, and pens were full of live animals until the bill was paid.[...]

Pit bulls and breeds mixed with them dominate Detroit’s stray population because of widespread dog fighting, said [ Harry Ward, head of animal control.]. Males are aggressive in mating, so they proliferate, he added.

One type of fighting pit bull has become known as far as Los Angeles as the “Highland Park red,” named after a city within Detroit’s borders, Ward said. 

Their prevalence was clear as Ward and officers Moore and Malachi Jackson answered calls Aug. 19. On a block where vacant houses and lots outnumbered occupied ones, they found four dogs in an abandoned house -- a male and three females, including a pregnant pit bull with a prized blue-gray coat. 

Ward said it appeared the dogs were fed by someone who used the house to hide stolen items.
Walking Small

Aggressive dogs force the U.S. Postal Service to temporarily halt mail delivery in some neighborhoods, said Ed Moore, a Detroit-area spokesman.

Bottom line: A more violent version of Greece government failure has come to America. From a blog about Athens:

Stray dogs are a problem in Athens. Not because they will attack you or chase you through the city streets. It is mostly an image problem. You have this big modern city and wandering around, lounging in the shade, solo and in packs, are dogs. Some are pets, some are former pets and some have never been pets at all