Abdul must not like dogs.
Far-left Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who has campaigned heavily on his credentials as a doctor and public-health official, is under fire over his time leading the Detroit Health Department, during which the city’s animal-control operation euthanized more than 4,000 dogs and cats.
According to records obtained by the Daily Mail, nearly 4,680 dogs and cats were put down by Detroit Animal Care and Control between 2015 and 2017 while El-Sayed served as executive director and health officer.
In 2015 alone, the facility killed 1,988 dogs and 272 cats, accounting for more than a quarter of all dogs euthanized in the county that year.
El-Sayed later boasted in a 2017 profile that his team had “rebuilt the animal control system,” yet the kill numbers remained high, and the live-release rate hovered around just 20 percent in 2015 before improving in later years.
🚨 JUST IN: Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was just exposed for overseeing an animal “SLAUGHTERHOUSE” that killed over 4,000 dogs and cats under his watch — Daily Mail
Of COURSE.
He served as executive director and health officer of the Detroit Health Department and… pic.twitter.com/QMzOjiQ36F
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 13, 2026
Former employee Brittany Roberts filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 2015 describing the shelter as a “dog slaughterhouse,” claiming animals were kept in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions surrounded by feces, blood and vomit, that dogs were not routinely scanned for microchips before euthanasia, and that sick and injured animals received inadequate care.
One dog named Coco was mistakenly killed while it was only supposed to be quarantined for a mandatory rabies observation after biting another animal.
El-Sayed acknowledged “systematic failure” at a protest but clashed with local media, reportedly asking a reporter to stop covering the protests because cameras were “killing the team’s morale.”
Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed reportedly oversaw the euthanasia of over 4,600 cats and dogs during his time as the executive director and health officer for the Detroit Health Department.
A former animal control officer described the department’s shelter as a… pic.twitter.com/oOQKGt6Osg
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 13, 2026
The Daily Mail reports:
A FOX 2 reporter, Hannah Saunders, publicly discussed El-Sayed’s efforts to discourage coverage of protests at Detroit Animal Control.
In a Facebook post she wrote that he asked her not to cover any more protests at Detroit Animal Control.
She claimed he told her in a text, ‘Could you please avoid it? It’s already reeling and cameras are killing the team’s morale [sic].’
El-Sayed claimed that the FOX 2 reporter does ‘not cover things objectively.’
The Facebook group Citizens for Change for Detroit Dogs & Cats featured numerous pleas for new leadership at Detroit Animal Control throughout 2015, with residents posting photographs and evidence they said showed deplorable conditions and neglected animals.
The city eventually settled Roberts’ lawsuit for $63,000 without admitting the full scope of the allegations.
When contacted for comment about the allegations by the Daily Mail, El-Sayed defended his record, claiming he oversaw “the most significant humane-care turnarounds in Michigan.”
The report adds:
A campaign spokesperson admitted that the Detroit Animal Control was operating under ‘outdated, inhumane procedures’ that threatened public safety before he arrived.
‘Under his leadership, Detroit reversed its save rate entirely, placing nearly 80 percent of animals into loving homes because of Abdul’s implemented changes,’ the campaign claimed.
The campaign did not comment on why the 2016 euthanasia figures were not publicly disclosed.
El-Sayed is a practicing Muslim.
Under his religion, dogs are not seen as man’s best friend; they are considered “impure” and “dirty.”
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