DETROIT – Floyd Hardrick is almost in tears as he describes his dog's behavior just hours before it died.
"I get my dog home, I'm giving him Mucinex and he can't even bark. My dog couldn't even bark," said Hardrick.
Hardrick is just one of nearly a dozen people who gathered Thursday to talk about how their dogs became sick and eventually died after being in the care of Detroit Animal Control. Many said they had to pay hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars in cash to get their dogs back.
"I had received my paycheck on July 17th and I could only afford to get one dog out and it was nothing I could do about my other dogs that I loved so much," said Hardrick.
Rochelle Munson said her dog Meijer killed a raccoon in her backyard. She said she's a responsible pet owner, so she proactively took him to Detroit Animal Control for a rabies shot. They kept Meijer quarantined for 10 days even though the raccoon tested negative. Munson said when she got Meijer back he was a very different dog.
"There was no hope for Meijer. He had tendonitis, he had kennel cough, he had been beaten. Meijer had E.coli poisoning and his trachea had been crushed," said Munson.
Bianca Peterson's dog Rocco was taken after it allegedly bit someone. Rocco was held about two weeks and also had to be put down.
"All the dogs in there are sick; they were coughing up white stuff. I'm complaining about it because they're all surrounded by my dog and my dog was a healthy dog. He was a 92-pound pit bull terrier, but by the time I had to put him to sleep, he was 64 pounds," said Peterson.
The city released a statement to Local 4 News saying:
"The city does not comment on pending lawsuits. It is committed to ensuring the humane treatment of all animals in the care of Animal Control and takes all complaints seriously. Just last week, we announced a new partnership with the Michigan Humane Society that will place dozens of dogs at Animal Control into caring foster homes each month. We've also transferred oversight of Animal Control to the city's health department. Very soon we will be announcing a new system to let pet owners pay by credit card to make it easier to take them home."
The attorneys representing the victims who spoke Thursday said there are probably dozens of other cases of wrongdoing by Detroit Animal Control. If other members of the public have had an issue, call attorney Tamara French at (313) 831-3390.