Animal rights group gets $1.5M donation

DETROIT, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- An animal-rescue group in Detroit has received a $1.5 million gift to be used to help build the city's first no-kill dog shelter, the group said.

The gift, in the form of stock options from a woman inspired by a news report on Detroit Dog Rescue's work locating and rehabilitating stray dogs in Detroit, the Detroit Free Press reported. The donor did not want her name to be reported.

TV producer Monica Martino and hip-hop artist Daniel (Hush) Carlisle founded the group nine months ago.

The donor had seen the group's work with Ace, a pit bull that was found, emaciated, outside a hardware store. DDR tried to get the dog released from the city's Animal Control Pound and got a temporary restraining order from a judge -- and people identified themselves as its owners -- but the dog was euthanized nonetheless.

That drew protests from Detroit City Council members and others.

"This donation is just the beginning," Martino said in a statement Thursday. "While Hush and I were working on the streets of Detroit, we saw firsthand the true scope and scale of the stray dog situation. This problem in Detroit is an epidemic and the system that is in place to control it is broken. The first step is to build a no-kill shelter."

About 50,000 stray dogs live in Detroit, the group estimates.