Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is facing renewed scrutiny over his tenure overseeing Detroit’s animal control agency, which was plagued by allegations of neglect, poor conditions and high euthanasia rates when the operation was transferred to his department.
El-Sayed led the Detroit Health Department when Detroit Animal Care and Control was moved from the Detroit Police Department to his agency in October 2015.
The transfer came as the shelter was facing serious allegations about its treatment of animals.
Former animal control officer Brittany Roberts described the facility as a “slaughterhouse” and alleged that dogs were sometimes left suffering in their cages rather than being properly euthanized.
“I was almost embarrassed with myself to be part of a team that played a role of the death of so many dogs in their cages,” Roberts said in 2015, according to reports.
“Every morning, we’d just walk around and see who was alive before we could even feed.”
Roberts began working at the shelter in March 2015 and filed a whistleblower lawsuit that October.
She alleged that animals died after being deprived of adequate food and medical treatment, were housed in unsanitary conditions and experienced other violations of state law and departmental policies.
Roberts also alleged that officials harassed and ultimately fired her after she reported the conditions.
Her lawsuit was filed during the same month Detroit transferred responsibility for animal control to the Health Department headed by El-Sayed. The Detroit Police Department had controlled the operation since 2012.
The timing has become a central point in the renewed political controversy.
El-Sayed’s campaign maintains that he inherited an already dysfunctional animal control operation and subsequently helped improve it.
Statistics cited in reports show that the shelter was struggling significantly in 2015.
Best Friends Animal Society reported that Detroit Animal Care and Control saved approximately 20% of animals that year, while state data reportedly placed its live-release rate at 26%.
The agency euthanized 1,988 dogs and 272 cats in 2015, totaling 2,260 animals.
After animal control was transferred to El-Sayed’s department, the city began implementing significant changes.
Officials eliminated a policy that prevented shelter adoptions, expanded partnerships with animal rescue and foster organizations and appointed Melissa Miller as animal control director in December 2015, per Trending Politics.
The shelter subsequently moved into a larger facility donated by the Michigan Humane Society and expanded its relationships with outside animal-welfare groups.
By September 2016, the shelter’s live-release rate had reportedly climbed to 61%.
Miller announced the following month that the figure had reached 62%, representing a substantial increase compared with the previous year.
Then-Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan acknowledged the problems that had existed at the facility while praising the improvement.
Duggan described the earlier euthanasia rate as “unacceptable” and said the improved rate was “more in line with national standards.”
However, animals continued to be euthanized after El-Sayed’s Health Department assumed control.
Records cited by the Daily Mail reportedly show that 1,056 dogs and 29 cats were euthanized in 2016, the first full calendar year in which the operation was overseen by El-Sayed’s department.
The outlet reported that records covering the broader period surrounding El-Sayed’s tenure showed 4,680 dogs and cats were euthanized.
The resurfaced figures are now becoming an issue in Michigan’s US Senate contest following El-Sayed’s Democratic primary victory over Rep. Haley Stevens.
The reports have attracted attention from members of both parties.
Michael LaRosa, who previously served as press secretary to former first lady Jill Biden, expressed skepticism and sought additional verification after the allegations began circulating.
“I actually really really don’t want to believe this. Can someone verify?” LaRosa wrote.
Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, who is running against El-Sayed, seized on the controversy.
“This is sickening. Abdul El-Sayed wants Michiganders to trust him with their families,” Rogers wrote on X.
“Meanwhile, Detroiters couldn’t even trust him with their pets.”
The record presents a more complicated picture than the criticism alone suggests.
The most serious allegations about conditions at the shelter emerged around the time El-Sayed’s Health Department inherited responsibility for the agency rather than originating entirely under his leadership.
At the same time, substantial numbers of animals continued to be euthanized while the shelter was under his department’s control.
Available figures also indicate that the shelter’s live-release rate improved dramatically following the transfer and subsequent reforms, rising from approximately 20% to 26% in 2015 to more than 60% in 2016.
Years later, that record has returned to the political spotlight as El-Sayed campaigns for a seat in the US Senate and Republicans seek to make his leadership of Detroit’s animal control operation an issue in the general election.
