50,000 dogs run riot through Detroit wasteland

Thousands of 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 allow them to have peaceful deaths.

As many as 20 canines have been found making dens 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.