CLEVELAND — After a horrifying stray dog attack all caught on camera on Cleveland’s East Side, an exclusive News 5 Investigation has revealed big problems on city streets, leaving residents and pets suffering.
In the video, you can see stray dogs knocking down and chomping at Leslie Gilcrest. And she wasn’t the only target.
“I never let them go near other dogs or the dog parks because they are so little,” said Gilcrest.
She was talking about her five-pound and eight-pound Pomeranian pups that were hunted down. One of the attackers even bit and shook Gilcrest’s dog violently.
“Help! Help!” was the only thing she could scream, she told us.
“What’s going through your mind at this point?” we asked.
“I’m terrorized! I’m devastated,” said Gilcrest. “They’re going to kill my dogs!”
One of her dogs ended up with significant muscle damage, and the other suffered puncture wounds with continuous bleeding.
“He came home with a drain hanging out, and he still has quite a hole in him,” she told us. Her vet bills were more than $1,700.
GRANDMOTHER, GRANDDAUGHTER ATTACKED
Our investigation into Cleveland’s dog problems showed vicious canines running loose, including an attack in April when a 75-year-old grandmother and her granddaughter were caught in the middle of a pack of dogs on Mead Avenue.
“He bit half of her leg off? Did this just happen?” can be heard from the 9-1-1 calls that day.
City records showed a growing number of dogs at the pound, from 2,948 in 2020 to 800 more than that in 2022.
TOP ZIP CODES WHERE MOST DOGS SEIZED
Our research revealed the top zip codes with the most dog seizures. Number one is 44102, which is near the city’s pound, but there were also major problems in 44105, 44109, 44111 and 44108 where Gilcrest lives. “These dogs…you can’t let them get out because they don’t come back,” she told us. “They get hungry, and they’re going to attack!”
Despite several requests for someone from the city of Cleveland to talk to us about animal control, our inquiries were never addressed. So, we asked Cuyahoga County to help us understand what’s happening locally with stray dogs.
'SHELTERS IN A BIT OF CRISIS'
“Our shelters are in a bit of crisis right now,” said Shelter Administrator Mindy Naticchioni. She showed us county data and the steady increase in its dog intakes. Plus, nationally, we found many of the same problems piling up, including just this year, strays are up 14%. Why?
“No one can say exactly this is the one thing that’s happening,” said Naticcioni. She told us it could be that so many people adopted during the pandemic that they’re not looking for dogs now. And/or evictions that had been paused during COVID are now happening again, and people are letting their dogs go. And/or inflation skyrocketing for just about everything, including animal care. “We have a veterinary shortage in animal welfare,” said Naticcioni. “That is nationwide and is substantial and has driven up the cost of veterinary care pretty exponentially.”
THE MAIN BREED TAKEN INTO POUNDS
We broke down the most prevalent breeds impounded in Cleveland over the last three years. Pit Bulls and American Pit Bulls topped the list in 2020. The same thing happened the next year but with higher numbers. And in 2022, there was an even bigger jump in Pits taken in.
The county showed Pit Bull Mixes are the number one most rounded-up dogs as well for each of the last three years. Naticcioni told us as cities and states banned the breed years ago, there was a spark in births. “What we believe happened is that backyard breeders kind of got to go wild, and these animals weren’t available for spay or neuter programs,” said Natticcioni.
News 5 Investigators went out one day, and it didn’t take long to find a dog running around on its own on the city’s east side.
It’s gotten so bad at the city pound that it recently reported it had 199 animals for just 160 cages. And the county? “Whereas in the past we’d only run an adoption promotion once or twice a year, we are on our fifth adoption promotion of the year (this year),” said Naticcioni.
NUMBERS OF EUTHANIZATIONS ARE WAY UP
While staff members and volunteers work to help dogs be healthy and happy through many programs, some of the outcomes are not good. The number of dogs euthanized in Cleveland went from 177 in 2020, to 240 the next year, and then 525 just last year alone.
There were jumps in numbers at the county level, too.
“There’s nothing more difficult than making the decision to euthanize an animal,” said Naticcioni. “Can we safely handle the animal, and can we safely put it back into our community?” she said. “That’s the number one mission to who we are as a shelter is the safety for the community.”
Safety for people like Gilcrest, where the attack mentioned at the beginning of this story wasn’t even the first time she came face-to-face with dogs on the loose. It was late last summer, just up the block from her home.
“I screamed and screamed. I was knocked down on the tree lawn,” she told us.
Thankfully, someone driving by helped her, and that incident didn’t end up like her most recent experience.
“I understand completely that we have a number of issues, and maybe stray dogs are not a priority, but they should be,” said Gilcrest.
Meanwhile, the folks at the county pound said another thing that makes it harder is that dogs are staying at the pound for many more days than pre-pandemic numbers. They said they need your help. Be a volunteer at the pound. Foster homes for dogs are key. Donations help, and you should adopt. Instead of going to a breeder, hit the pound for your next animal. All of that could help keep our streets safer.
To find more information on assisting the Cleveland Animal Care and Control Department, click here. For details on volunteer and donation opportunities for the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter, click here.
