Detroit Big Cat, Giant Savannah Breed Animal Named 'Chum', Shot And Killed: Reports

Reports of a giant cat stalking the streets of Detroit made national headlines for a few days.

But now an animal group says that the big cat of Detroit, who was rumored to be the size of a Doberman, has been shot and killed.

Paws for the Cause Feral Cat Rescue told WXYZ-TV that the cat met an untimely end. They had been trying for the last several days to rescue the animal.

The Detroit Free Press found out more about the cat. For starters, the feline had a name: Chum.

Laura Wilhelm-Bruzek, founder of Paws for the Cause, told the Free Press that the cat was three years old and weighed 25 pounds. It was a Savannah cat, a cross-breed between an African serval and a domestic house cat that was first introduced in the 1980s.

The cat also wasn't a stray. The owners, who lived in Eastpointe, which borders Detroit, said Chum had escaped through a bathroom window about a month ago. They hadn't micro-chipped their pet.

The animal's remains were found in a trash can on Detroit's east side Monday evening. WIlhelm-Bruzek said that a resident living just south of Eight Mile Road had shot and killed the feline days ago. Neighbors in the area had reportedly asked the Detroit Police and the Michigan Humane Society to investigate reports of the animal, but action wasn't taken quick enough to save Chum's life.

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Mysterious Large Cat Stalks Detroit Neighborhood

The city of Detroit certainly has its share of woes, including bankruptcy, crime and other concerns. You can now add "large cat" to that list, if recent reports are to be believed.

Residents of Detroit's northeastern area have been calling the Michigan Humane Society and local animal-control officials to report sightings of some kind of cat that may be as large as 100 lbs. (45 kilograms).

Detroit resident Cynthia Hogan saw a feline about as big as her 85-pound (39 kg) Doberman pinscher lying down in her neighbors' backyard. "It was a large cat. It didn't look like a bobcat," Hogan told CBS Detroit. "I was able to see if it had the tufts on its ears, and it wasn't big like a cougar — it wasn't as meaty as a cougar … I have no idea what this was."

"His tail is longer than my arm," area resident Antwaun Asberry told the Detroit Free Press. Asberry reported seeing the cat stalking him while he was walking down the sidewalk with his 1-year-old daughter. "I don't know what it is," he said. "I just want it gone."

A photo of the cat taken by an area resident shows a cat, roughly the size of a medium-size dog, with solid, dark spots on pale, grayish fur, and a striped tail. Tom McPhee of the World Animal Awareness Society in Ann Arbor, Mich., believes it may be an escaped exotic pet.

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50,000 abandoned dogs roaming streets of Detroit in packs

Packs of wild, abandoned dogs are roaming the streets of Detroit, leaving city officials overwhelmed at the prospect of handing an issue that raises both animal rights and safety concerns.

“It was almost post-apocalyptic, where there are no businesses, nothing except people in houses and dogs running around,” the Humane Society of the United States director Amanda Arrington told Bloomberg News about a recent visit to Detroit. “The suffering of animals goes hand in hand with the suffering of people.”

Bloomberg reports that packs of the dogs have been spotted in groups as large as 20. In one case, Detroit police officer Lapez Moore said the city’s animal-control unit recently found several of the dogs inside a flooded basement where thieves had torn out the building’s water pipes.

“The dogs were having a pool party,” Moore said. “We went in and fished them out.”

But the reality of the situation is more dire than an impromptu animal pool party. Local shelters say they are forced to euthanize about 70 percent of the dogs that are brought it, and their facilities are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of abandoned and stray animals.

The stray-dog claims may sound hard to believe, but they are backed by a number of similar stories over the past two years confirming that the city’s economic woes have created a crisis that extends beyond the city’s declining human population. As far back as 2003, National Geographic reported the growing number of feral dogs in Detroit.

And there are a growing number of stories surrounding the thousands of dogs that are not brought in.

The city says there were 903 reported dog bites last year, including a woman who had her scalp bitten off by two strays.

Read on

Redford Township dog returns to life after vet’s attempt to euthanize it

Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News


Redford Township — Matt Olivarez went to bury his beloved dog Mia Sunday only to discover she wasn’t ready for the hereafter.

The 10-year-old Rottweiller was alive and looking at him for a refill of food in her bowl. It spooked the 27-year-old Olivarez because he had her euthanized the day before at Westcott Veterinary Care Center on Grand River in Detroit due to a spinal issue.

“For her to just wake up the next morning is very crazy,” Olivarez said. “I watch scary movies. It was like a scene from Pet Sematary.”

The veterinary clinic could not immediately be reached for comment.

Olivarez is feeding Mia by hand and says she is still in severe pain. But he doesn’t think he could have her put to sleep a second time.

“It was hard enough the first time and I don’t know if I can do it a second time,” he said.

He got the dog about the time his first son was born so he would have a buddy to grow up with, said Olivarez’ mother Brenda Shead. She tearfully recalled fond memories of the dog playing with Olivarez’ two sons, aged 8 and 9 years old. The boys live with their mother and do not know about what happened to Mia.

“She has a strong will,” Shead said of Mia. “She was the only dog from her litter to survive. She doesn’t give up.”

Now Olivarez is trying to figure out what he will tell his boys, a situation compounded by their great-grandfather dying this week.

“That’s a lot to put on a child’s plate,” Olivarez said. “I’m just trying to figure out how to deal with it myself.”