Danger Unleashed: Animal Cruelty Response Weak

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

Pam Zekman
Reporting - CBS 2 - Chicago. IL.

(CBS) CHICAGO Reports of animal cruelty and neglect are on the rise. And so is dog fighting -- the vicious game of choice for gangs.

But the CBS 2 Investigators found that the city's response to the growing problem is fragmented and underfunded.

Pam Zekman reports that means neighborhoods are increasingly terrorized by dangerous dogs.

It's a citywide problem from the South Side to the North Side -- reports of animal cruelty, dog fighting and potentially dangerous, loose dogs roaming the streets of Chicago.

It took the city seven months before they seized all of the loose dogs who were terrorizing Martell Fambro's South Side neighborhood.

"I was scared for my life," he said.

On the North Side, Elizabeth Wade waited 10 months for the city to respond to her complaints of animal cruelty.

"We saw the dog hung up, its chain hung up, and that the owner had gone out and kicked the dog in the face," she said. "I think it's outrageous and I think it is a symptom of a system that is overburdened, understaffed and underfunded."

CBS 2's investigation found that animal complaints to the city have escalated to more than 70,000 so far this year. But the city can only respond to a fraction of them.

On one day last week, the city's animal care and control office received 298 calls for assistance ranging from stray animals to vicious animals.

But their animal car officers could only respond to 63 of those calls.

"I believe we have responded very adequately to all of the emergency requests," Animal Care and Control Director Ann Kent said.

Kent was asked how the department could possibly deal with a volume of 70,000 calls per year.

"Realistically, we can't," she said. "We would be remiss if I said I didn’t need more animal care officers."

Animal care officers do not have police powers and rely on the police department's animal abuse control team to enforce animal control laws and make arrests.

But one former member of that police unit says it's overwhelmed.

"It's very unlikely that someone abusing an animal or fighting an animal is going to be caught," former Chicago policeman John Keene said.

Keene spent years on the team headed by Police Sgt. Steve Brownstein.

"When you have large numbers of animals that are being used for no other purpose than to fight and to be abused, we should not be surprised when there's a significant increase of attacks by dogs against human beings," Brownstein said.

The officers see the evidence every day -- attacks on people, pit bull puppies being bred for fighting and adult dogs with battle scars.

"When people become accustomed to this form of violence it becomes easy to move toward the next step of violence toward fellow human beings," Brownstein said.

Brandy Birdine knows that all to well. Her husband was shot to death for refusing to allow his dog to fight.

"The guy walked up to him, shot him in the head and stepped over him like he was a dog," she said.

Both Keene and Brownstein say humane organizations and the public need to pressure police departments to act.

"They need to be advocates that the police respond and treat these crimes seriously," Keene said. "And they need to hold the police accountable if the police fail to do it."

Keene said that it is hard to change the current police culture that views animal crimes as a low priority.

"If they are given clear direction from the top of what to take seriously and how to process these crimes, than they will be enforced," he said.

CBS 2 asked for an interview with Chicago Police Supt. Phil Cline but he was not available.

Since his interview with CBS 2, Sgt. Brownstein was recently transferred out of the animal abuse control team.

Last week he received an award as officer of the year from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.