Lawsuit in deadly Detroit dog mauling targets owners, shelter and nonprofit, alleges systemic failures
(CBS DETROIT) – The widow of a Detroit man mauled by three dogs has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the dogs' owners, the city shelter and a nonprofit that supports their operations.
Back on January 29, Harold Phillips was heading home after going to the mall to buy clothes for a job interview when he was viciously attacked by three dogs owned by Trevina and Roy Goodman.
"These dogs were a known and foreseeable risk to the community, and there were no steps taken to rectify that prior to Mr. Phillips's death. So while the dog owners, yes, bear some responsibility for this, what about those who are charged with protecting the city and its community from animals like this?" said Paul Huebner, an attorney at Fieger Law.
The 58-page lawsuit alleges that despite previous run-ins with the law and warnings about the Goodmans' dogs, Detroit Animal Care and Control did nothing to prevent the tragedy.
"The ordinance for dangerous dogs within the city allows the city to make a determination of a dangerous dog after an attack, and for that dog to be impounded, and for corrective measures to be taken. And if those corrective measures fail, the dog to once again be impounded and, ultimately, in the event of a persistently dangerous dog as I think we have here, be euthanized," Huebner said.
According to the lawsuit, this failure is linked to the influence exerted by the nonprofit Friends of Detroit Animal Care and Control, which supports the city's animal control operations.
"If FoDACC and donors say no-kill legislation, we don't want no-kill shelters in our city. For the DACC to get that funding, they have to have a 90% live-release rate. That then changes how they're administering the ordinance, where they might take a dog in and release it, although it's dangerous because then they don't have to euthanize it. It gets them closer to that 90% no-kill rate," Huebner said.
FoDACC told CBS News Detroit they don't have any comment at this time.
"There's an accountability to be had. A man is dead. And it's as a result of a systematic failure," Huebner said.
A city spokesperson for the shelter said it's policy not to comment on active litigation, but it will respond to the allegations in its own filing.