DETROIT – Officials have made progress in their effort to secure the area around a Detroit school after a video released Thursday showed three dogs attacking a teacher who was trying to protect the students at nearby J.E. Clark Preparatory Academy.
Detroit Animal Control officials said the dogs have been captured and charges are pending in the case.
"Our animal control investigator was out and has spoken to the victim as well as the owner of the animals," said Melissa Miller, of Detroit Animal Control. "The animals are now in our care and control."
The cellphone video shows three dogs from a neighboring house running around and attacking a teacher around school dismissal time Wednesday. The teacher had jumped in to get the dogs away from screaming children, but he became the target.
"It looks like a group of dogs that are probably under socialized, that have not had a lot of human interaction and then weren't properly confined," Miller said.
Neighbors said dogs roaming the community have been a problem for years and it wasn't necessarily just those three dogs.
"They have them here, and they'd be running around," Gloria Lewis said. "There's one that comes constantly, about every day."
Knowing that the three dogs in the video had a willingness to chase and attack humans made them particularly dangerous. That's why getting them confiscated has been a high priority in protecting the children at the school.
The dogs will be quarantined because the teacher did sustain a dog bite. A file will be turned over to the Wayne County prosecutor for possible charges against the dog owner.
The charges are misdemeanors, but if convicted, the owner could face up to 92 days in jail. Right now, he's facing as much as $2,500 in fees and fines if he wants his dogs back. Officials said it's still in question if the dogs will be released after 10 days in quarantine.