Detroit Dog Rescue dogs can stay, for now

Detroit Dog Rescue will get to keep its dogs for at least the next few weeks while the shelter tries to settle its dispute with city officials.

The shelter appeared to be just days away from losing some of its 17 dogs after a visit from officials with Detroit Animal Control last week. During that June 10 visit, Animal Control's leader, Harry Ward, said that the shelter needed to provide proper paperwork for all of its animals – and that if the paperwork was unsound, those dogs would be taken.

It wasn't clear what prompted the visit. The shelter's manager, Kristina Rinaldi, has said that her paperwork is fine, and that Ward was actually threatening to take dogs that the city didn't have a right to own.

But meetings will be set up in the next few weeks to see if there can be any common ground. For now, as those discussions play out, the dogs can stay, said Detroit Police spokeswoman Sgt. Cassandra Lewis.

"Nothing's over," she added. "For now we're going to try to see what discussions we can have."

At stake for shelter owners is a fear that giving dogs to Animal Control is tantamount to euthanizing them, Rinaldi has said.

"Our fear is they're going to stop us from rescuing dogs in the city of Detroit," Rinaldi said at a press conference with local rescue leaders on Friday, where the rescue groups demanded a meeting with Mayor Mike Duggan. "That's not fair. It's not good for the citizens. It's not good for the dogs. It's not helping anybody."

Detroit Police Assistant Chief James White disputed the idea that police were intent on taking away animals regardless of what the paperwork says.

Contact Daniel Bethencourt: dbethencourt@freepress.com or 313-223-4531. Follow on Twitter at @_dbethencourt.

