With a growing list of children, adults and many beloved pets being attacked, mutilated and fatally mauled, it’s abundantly clear that Detroit has a serious Pit Bull problem. When will it stop?
On April 4, 2023, Daniel Bonacorsi, a 58 year old man from Plymouth, was working in Detroit for the Army Corps of Engineers. He saw some pit bulls that he believed were stray enter an abandoned building on Fort Street in Detroit. A kind animal lover, Daniel went to check to make sure the dogs were ok and had water to drink. The two pit bulls violently mauled him to death. It was not their first violent incident. Daniel Bonacorsi is the latest victim of pit bulls in Detroit, but sadly, one of many.
Pit bulls have plagued Detroit for years, attacking, dismembering and killing multiple people. Detroit Animal Care and Control seems to be complicit in the horror of the pit bull carnage. While DACC states that their mission is to “promote and protect the health, safety, and welfare of the residents and visitors of the City of Detroit from animal bites…”, in actuality it appears they promote protection of pit bulls instead of the public.
In 2019, Detroit hired Mark Kumpf from Dayton, Ohio as their Animal Control Director. Mark Kumpf was fired from his job as the director of the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center for a litany of issues, including ignoring calls for action resulting in the fatal dog mauling of Klonda Richey. Kumpf, is a dog warden with multiple human fatalities in his county during his watch due to his refusal to enforce the law. Please read the 2016 ruling from the Court of Appeals of Ohio Second Appellate District Montgomery County for an eye-opening explanation of Kumpf’s business model. That model included, in addition to the refusal to enforce the law, refusal to answer phone calls, destruction of records, instructions to his staff to write fewer citations and zero follow-up to post-it note citations.
Although his salary is over $100K, it seems Kumpf is following his same failed practices now in Detroit. Inside sources to RC4PS.org have reported that Kumpf directs Animal Control Officers not to bring in stray dogs to the shelter, but instead “shoo them away”. ACOs are also directed to “go dark” meaning not to answer calls or show up for requests by citizens. Instead, DACC calls rescue groups to attend to the needs of mistreated and stray dogs. DACC is desperately trying to retain “No Kill” status, attempting to increase their “live release rate”. Are Detroiters safe from vicious dogs with policies like this? We don’t believe so. As long as DACC continues to disregard the clear data that pit bulls and their ilk are responsible for a disproportionate number of severe and fatal attacks and continue to promote propaganda about pit bulls, the safety of the public is at risk.
