Detroit dog owner says his pet was attacked by wolves

DETROIT (WJBK) - A family pet is attacked by a pack of wolves - the dog survived but his owner wants them caught so it doesn't happen again.

Some of the injuries we're going to show you are disturbing.  Douglas Sawdon says his 2-year-old dog, a chow breed, was attacked by a pack of wild animals at about 2 a.m. on Thursday in his backyard.

Sawdon's home located in the 23000 block of West McNichols in Detroit's Brightmoor community.  He says he woke up to seeing his pet fighting behind his home, where there is a lot of brush.

"When I got closer, there was three solid black dogs, wolves," he said. "These were dark black; there was no gray on them, no brown in them, and no red. They were solid black. All you could see were eyes and teeth. Every one of them was 60 pounds or more. My dog is 70 pounds, and they were bigger than my dog."

He says he grabbed a baseball bat to fight them off.

"It cleared that fence," he said. "The other one, even after I hit it in the head with a bat, and I hit it hard, it turned. If a little girl walking to school down this street or a little boy or a grown man for that matter, just bent down to tie their shoe and they come out ...  I was scared for my life."

His beautiful dog is in bad shape.

"He moved around a little bit last night, he ate a little bit," Sawdon said. "But he's got probably 10 lacerations all around his neck, big deep. If that was a person, chances are he wouldn't make it."

FOX 2 contacted Detroit Animal Care and Control which sent us a statement saying:

"In regard to the alleged wolf pack sighting and altercation, Detroit Animal Care and Control would be happy to work with our colleagues at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to investigate the situation and ensure public safety in the city of Detroit.

"While migration of wildlife occurs in the state of Michigan, there have been no confirmed wolf sightings in Detroit."

FOX 2 also called the DNR to see if they had more information about this alleged attack, but we're still waiting to hear back.