DETROIT — Dogs are running wild in Detroit, and a nonprofit wants to stop it.
In a city with persistent economic problems, owners are abandoning their dogs because they can't afford to keep them and illegal dogfighting operations are cropping up. Loose dogs rounded up and housed in city shelters are often euthanized if they go unclaimed for days.
It's all too much to take for rapper Dan "Hush" Carlisle and TV producer Monica Martino, who co-founded the nonprofit Detroit Dog Rescue in 2011.
The group's mission is this: Round up all the dogs and find them homes. For the dogs that take a little longer to find a landing spot, Detroit Dog Rescue wants to build a shelter designed to comfortably house them.
Either way, no dog dies.
It may sound like pie in the sky, but consider this: Carlisle and his team of four full-time employees, two part-timers and various volunteers have taken 200 dogs off the streets since DDR was formed last year. In December, an anonymous donor from California transferred $1.5 million in valued stock options to the group toward its planned no-kill shelter, which the nonprofit says would be the first of its kind in the city.
"It's a homeless epidemic of these animals," said Carlisle, who under the stage name "Hush" has accompanied Eminem on tour and opened for Snoop Dogg in London.
Bruce King, who oversees Detroit's animal shelter program, says the city captures 3,000 to 5,000 dogs annually.
Carlisle and his crew have spent many of their days scouring Detroit, including regular sojourns through some of the city's worst neighborhoods, in search of dogs in need of food, shelter and a little affection.
"Other organizations – they're focused on everything from a deer to a bird to a ferret to a rabbit, a lizard, an alligator. You name it," he said. "But we are Detroit Dog Rescue. We are focusing solely on the homeless dogs."
Thanks for the article about parakeets. A great article and an interesting topic.
Good read about cats. Clear, high-quality, and aboutall great.
Definitely worth the read on parakeets. Excellent read!
Fantastic work with the article about parakeets.
Great article about dogs. It captured the main aspects of the topic and put them into a well-worded article!
It's about time someone cabouted this well! Good post on puppies.
I loved the article on pets. It was very good.
I couldn't have said it better. Excellent post on rabbits.
I loved the article on pets. It was very good.
Thanks for the article about cats. It was clearly written and interesting.
Thanks for this blog post on parakeets. I learned a lot!
This is perfect! Excellent read about cats.
Good read and a great article. Thanks for the information on cats.
Well written article cabouting animals.
A minute ago I was looking and looking for an article like this. This article about puppies is exactly what I was looking for!
The article on pets was quality and worth the time.
I liked the article about fish very much. Thanks!
Precisely what I expected for this blog. Great post about dogs.
Thanks for the post about cats. I'll have to share this with some of my friends.
Great work on the article on pets. It really captured all aspects.
Thanks for writing about cats. The article answered all my questions.
Good blog post about parakeets.
Excellent work in the article discussing fish.
It's about time someone cabouted this well! Good post on puppies.
Nice article about cats. It really captured the topic well.
The article on puppies was pretty good. I liked it!
That was a nice read about fish.
Thanks for the post on animals. Definitely worth the time to read it.
Great job on the article about rabbits.
I appreciate your article on animals.
Thanks for writing about cats. The article answered all my questions.
Excellent work with the article about parakeets. It was worth the couple minutes for reading it.
Fantastic explanation on animals. I'll read more!
Great article about dogs. It captured the main aspects of the topic and put them into a well-worded article!
Good writing, good content, and good quality with the article about puppies.
A minute ago I was looking and looking for an article like this. This article about puppies is exactly what I was looking for!
Oh, I’m so very sorry to read this, Ricky. Sam was such a friendly, happy dog when I was with you in early October and I’m so sad to hear that all this changed so much for the worse and so quickly. Of course you will miss him a great deal and I send you both my sincerest sympathy on your loss.Perpetua´s last [type] ..Beating Blogger