Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed is under fire after a report about his treatment of dogs when he ran Detroit’s animal control system surfaced on Thursday.
The Daily Mail published a report detailing how often the department killed dogs and cats under his watch.
From 2015 to 2017, El-Sayed served as executive director and health officer of the Detroit Health Department – a powerful post that put him over the city's Animal Control operation during some of its darkest days.
In a 2017 ABC News profile of his bid for governor, El-Sayed pointed to his record as Detroit's health director, boasting that his team had 'rebuilt the animal control system.'
But according to records obtained by the Daily Mail, nearly 4,680 dogs and cats were euthanized by Detroit Animal Care and Control (DACC) during the period when El-Sayed was in his post at the Detroit Health Department.
The 2015 numbers were particularly stark. That year, DACC euthanized 1,988 dogs and 272 cats – a total of 2,260 animals.
The figure represented 26.4 percent of all dogs euthanized in the county, according to Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development's Animal Shelter Annual Report.
While the DACC failed to publicly report its 2016 euthanasia figures, according to records, an exclusive report obtained by the Daily Mail reveals that DACC euthanized 1,056 dogs and 29 cats that year.
Egypt has a notorious problem with mass dog killing.
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) August 13, 2026
Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed had thousands of dogs and cats killed on his watch in Detroit.
I don’t care where you’re from.
I’m pro-dog.https://t.co/vSzh3ouGTm
The report notes that a Michigan resident wrote a Facebook post in which he pointed out that “Michigan Anti-Cruelty Society killing more dogs than anyone!”
According to The Detroit News, in 2017, DACC euthanized a further 1,404 dogs and 13 cats.
The DACC had only about a 20 percent save/live-release rate in 2015, according to animal rescue site Best Friends, meaning roughly 80 percent of animals were not released alive.
The number improved in the Best Friends' 2016 report - bumping up to 60 percent. The site notes that it was a 'dramatic improvement' from the DACC's 2012 baseline of just 3 percent. In 2017, it says the save rate was 63 percent.
Shortly after El-Sayed assumed leadership of the Detroit Health Department in August 2015, former animal control officer Brittany Roberts filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the City of Detroit alleging neglect and systemic failure.
She characterized the operation as a “dog slaughterhouse” and claimed the agency maintained unsanitary and overcrowded conditions where animals were deprived of proper medical care, kept in feces-covered cages, and routinely euthanized without first checking for identification microchips.
She also said she faced retaliation after she expressed concerns about how the agency treated animals. City officials initially contested the claims, but the municipality eventually settled the case for $63,000 in 2016.
Given how people feel about cats and dogs this story could cause tremendous harm to his campaign. It’ll be quite interesting to see how he spins this, but if all else fails, he can just deflect to some good old-fashioned Trump bashing, right?
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