Detroit Dog Rescue helps with Detroit’s dog problems
Detroit Dog Rescue responds to welfare checks in a city that is overwhelmed with strays and aggressive dogs as they work to keep animals with owners.
Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press
A black and white pit bull was saved from a PVC pipe stuck around its neck this week after it was spotted on the Detroit-Dearborn border. Now, the animal welfare group behind the rescue will offer a $2,500 reward leading to an arrest in the case, as officials with the group believe someone intentionally placed the pipe on the dog.
Patrol teams for the animal welfare nonprofit Michigan Humane spotted the stray on Tuesday near Paul Avenue west of Greenfield Road, in the area of the Carhartt Inc. corporate campus in Dearborn, said Matt Pepper, president and CEO of the nonprofit.
The team tried to rescue the dog then, but it ran away, he said.
The nonprofit shared photos on social media the same day of the dog with a tightly fitted PVC pipe around its neck walking near debris and leftover snow on the side of a road. Michigan Humane asked the public for help locating the animal.
Those efforts proved fruitful Thursday when Dearborn police spotted the dog and worked with the nonprofit to rescue it. Ā
The male dog, roughly estimated to be perhaps 2 or 3 years old, had the PVC pipe removed by veterinarians the same day, Pepper said.
Photos from the nonprofit show the pup looking through the bars of a kennel with sad eyes before the pipe was removed and the pupās black and white-speckled face covered with a towel as a specialized saw cut through the pipe.
āHeās lucky and heās terrified and heās in good hands today,ā Pepper said, speaking Friday.
A name for the dog hadnāt been solidified just yet, but the team was leaning toward the name āCarharttā as an ode to where the dog was spotted and where it spent its time, Pepper said. The nonprofit also thanked Carhartt in a social media post for aid in getting word out about the dog ahead of the rescue.
The PVC pipe may have been placed on the dog for any number of reasons ā cruel discipline, kids being stupid, or in connection to dog fighting ā but it would be āvirtually impossibleā that the pipe got on the dog by accident, Pepper said. Though it could only be a guess, Pepperās expertise leads him to believe the dog may have been tied to dogfighting.
The dog has significant scarring on its face and the front of its body from apparent biting and fighting, Pepper said.
Their team was still evaluating the dog and it was not clear what the future would look like, but the dog was acting scared and not showing signs of aggression on Friday, Pepper said.
The dog, however, was a sad sight when Pepper saw him Friday, he said. Itās eating, but mainly unmoving and not reacting ā seemingly frozen ā as staffers allow him to decompress, Pepper said.
āWhat people are capable of doing to animals is infuriating,ā Pepper said.
Michigan Humane plans to release details for the $2,500 reward later in the day Thursday, Pepper said.
Pepper said that while the pit bullās case is extreme, his donor-run organization deals with such cases of cruelty every day. He asked anyone who spots an animal in need to call their CrueltyĀ Hotline atĀ 313-872-3401.
Source link https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2025/01/10/dearborn-detroit-dog-pvc-pipe-rescued-michigan-humane-reward-carhartt/77592725007/
