Future of attacking pit bulls uncertain

KENTWOOD, Mich. (WOOD) - The five pit bulls that turned on their owners Sunday morning remain in quarantine at the Kent County Animal Shelter.

It is too early to know what will happen to the dogs. The incident occurred around 9 a.m. in the 4300 block of Forest Way Drive, near East Paris and 36th Street.

Owners Jacqueline Potts and Christopher Griffin, ages 20 and 29 respectively, had been visiting friends living in the Eastland apartment complex in Kentwood on Saturday night when they ran out of gas as they were leaving. The couple decided to spend the night in their Jeep Grand Cherokee with the dogs.

Kentwood police say the couple had been living in the Jeep with all five pit bulls.

On Sunday morning, Griffin called his father, Floyd "Al" Griffin, who came by to bring gas.

The dogs got into a fight, and as the owners tried to intervene, the pit bulls turned on them and attacked.

"(One dog) actually had me on the ground over here, he had me on the ground, he had my foot actually, he was actually whipping me back and forth," Al Griffin said at the scene. "All over the pavement. You can see my blood over there on the side."

The investigation will examine the history of the dogs and the owners and consider the severity of the injuries.

Griffin says he has warned his son about the dogs, especially putting all five in the backseat of the Jeep.

"I think the experience was probably traumatic for (the dogs), as well as the people involved," said Veronica Constantine, program supervisor at the Kent County Animal Shelter.

But the shelter does not discriminate against breeds, she said. What happened was not a direct effect of the temperament of pit bulls.

Any group of dogs would be vulnerable under those circumstances, she said.

"It's pretty safe to say that any five dogs put in a vehicle for living arrangements, and put in that type of situation for an extended period of time, they're competing for space, food and attention," Constantine said. "They have a pretty high likelihood of having that negative outcome that we saw here."