But in the meantime, residents and city officials say they are at a loss for a viable solution to bring the situation under control. “We are really suffering from fatigue, short staffed” and work too much overtime, he said.Ī number of private organizations have stepped in to address the issue with plans to create a no-kill shelter to house some of the animals. When he started the job in 2008, Ward said the city had 15 officers and four dog-bite investigators. 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. 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. This very adaptable dog has even been found in urban areas. There may be a black tinge on the animal’s back, tail, and shoulders. “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. The coyote, found in most places in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, has a grizzled coat that’s yellowish around the ears, feet, and legs and gray and white everywhere else. Animal control officials say the dogs are often used for criminal purposes by individuals who rely on the dogs to guard abandoned homes where stolen property is kept. Pit bills, or mixed breeds of the dog, are the most prevalent type of dog left out in the wild. In a truly bizarre development, mail carrier Catherine Guzik said she was attacked by “swarms of tiny, ferocious dogs” while on the job. Nothing quite says home on the range like the howl of the Coyote (.

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. In addition to fox, coyote and wolves constitute the remainder of North American wild dogs. The city says there were 903 reported dog bites last year, including a woman who had her scalp bitten off by two strays.Īttacks have become so prevalent that the U.S. As far back as 2003, National Geographic reported t he growing number of feral dogs in Detroit.Īnd there are a growing number of stories surrounding the thousands of dogs that are not brought in. The stray-dog claims may sound hard to believe, but they are backed by a number of similar stories over the past two years confirming that the city’s economic woes have created a crisis that extends beyond the city’s declining human population.

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. “We went in and fished them out.”īut the reality of the situation is more dire than an impromptu animal pool party. “The dogs were having a pool party,” Moore said.

Wild dogs in america