Abdul El-Sayed faces scrutiny over Detroit animal shelter record as whistleblower allegations resurface

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is under renewed pressure after allegations that Detroit's animal shelter became a "slaughterhouse" on his watch went viral, and his Republican opponent is making sure voters know about it.

A former Detroit Animal Control officer named Brittany Roberts filed a whistleblower lawsuit in October 2015 alleging that animals at the city shelter died from a lack of food and medical care, were kept in filthy conditions, and suffered other mistreatment that violated state law and department policy. Roberts, who began working at the shelter in March 2015, said she was demeaned, harassed, and ultimately fired after reporting the problems. Detroit agreed in July 2016 to pay $63,000 to settle the case.

El-Sayed was Detroit's health director at the time. The city had just transferred its animal control operation from the Detroit Police Department to El-Sayed's health department in October 2015, and the grim details Roberts described, mass euthanasia, neglect, animals left to die in cages, now hang over his bid for the U.S. Senate.

Roberts called the shelter a "dog slaughterhouse"

Roberts' account, which Fox News Digital reported has resurfaced on social media, paints a bleak picture of daily operations at Detroit Animal Care and Control. She alleged that dogs were rarely euthanized properly but instead neglected and mistreated until they died. FOX 2 Detroit reported at the time that Roberts called the facility a "slaughterhouse."

In a 2015 account attributed via The Daily Mail, Roberts described what she witnessed:

"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. Every morning, we'd just walk around and see who was alive before we could even feed."

The Daily Mail reported that records covering the period surrounding El-Sayed's tenure showed 4,680 dogs and cats were euthanized. In 2015 alone, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development data showed 1,988 dogs and 272 cats, a total of 2,260 animals, were put down at the shelter. Best Friends Animal Society placed the facility's save rate that year at just 20 percent. The state agriculture department's own annual report put the live-release rate at 26 percent.

A federal judge added to the shelter's troubles in February 2016, temporarily blocking Detroit Animal Control from seizing dogs from residents' homes without a warrant, consent, or emergency circumstances. The order came in response to a lawsuit brought by Detroit residents.

El-Sayed's campaign says he inherited a mess, and fixed it

El-Sayed's campaign pushed back against the characterization that the animal deaths define his record. A campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital that during El-Sayed's tenure as health director, "he dramatically reduced animal euthanizations and reversed the Detroit Animal Control's abysmal save rate."

The campaign's version of events centers on a series of reforms El-Sayed set in motion after the operation landed under his authority. In December 2015, he brought in Melissa Miller as a new animal-control director. The city scrapped the shelter's no-adoption policy and began partnering with rescue and foster organizations. The Michigan Humane Society donated a larger facility. El-Sayed's campaign says he raised frontline animal-care officer pay by 15 percent and worked to fully staff the operation.

By September 2016, local reporting put the shelter's live-release rate at 61 percent, up from 26 percent the prior year. Miller stated in October 2016 that the figure had reached 62 percent. Then-Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan acknowledged that the previous euthanasia rate had been "unacceptable" but said the improved numbers were "more in line with national standards." El-Sayed's campaign claims the changes eventually resulted in nearly 80 percent of animals being placed in homes.

In a 2024 podcast interview on Crooked Media, El-Sayed described inheriting the animal control operation as an unexpected part of the job:

"When I was the new director of the Detroit Health Department, I inherited a part of the job that I never trained for and never thought I would do, which is Detroit Animal Control. And it was a mess at the time, and I needed somebody who I could trust, who could come in and do right by the animals and right by the people of the city of Detroit. And Mel Miller was that person."

The improvement narrative, however, comes with a significant gap. The Daily Mail reported that Detroit Animal Care and Control failed to publicly report its 2016 euthanasia figures. Numbers the outlet obtained showed the shelter still euthanized 1,056 dogs and 29 cats that year, a reduction from 2015, but not a figure the department volunteered to the public.

Mike Rogers seized the opening, and he wasn't alone

El-Sayed's Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, wasted no time. Rogers posted on X: "This is sickening. Abdul El-Sayed wants Michiganders to trust him with their families. Meanwhile, Detroiters couldn't even trust him with their pets."

The criticism did not come exclusively from the right. Michael LaRosa, who served as press secretary to first lady Jill Biden, reacted with visible disbelief: "I actually really really don't want to believe this. Can someone verify?"

El-Sayed is no stranger to controversy resurfacing at inconvenient moments. A resurfaced interview showed El-Sayed describing Sharia compliance as a lifelong "obligation," and a separate clip drew backlash after he was caught disparaging Mackinac Island, one of Michigan's most beloved landmarks.

El-Sayed won the Democratic primary against Rep. Haley Stevens to secure the Senate nomination. House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain, described as the top Michigander in the House, called El-Sayed a "Communist" in remarks to Fox News Digital about the midterm match-ups in the state.

Unanswered questions dog the nominee's record

Several details remain unclear. The campaign's claim that "nearly 80 percent of animals" were eventually placed in homes lacks a specified time period or independent verification in available reporting. The shelter's failure to publicly report its 2016 euthanasia numbers raises its own questions about transparency under El-Sayed's leadership.

El-Sayed is not the only Democratic Senate candidate this cycle dealing with damaging material from the past. In Maine, archived posts revealed crude admissions by a Democratic candidate that party leaders struggled to explain away. The pattern is familiar: records surface, the candidate insists the full picture is more favorable, and voters are left to decide how much weight to give the original evidence.

El-Sayed's defense, that he inherited a broken operation and improved it, has factual support in the live-release rate numbers. But the defense does not erase what happened inside the shelter while he was in charge: a whistleblower fired for speaking up, a $63,000 settlement paid by the city, a federal court order to stop warrantless dog seizures, and thousands of animals euthanized in conditions a former officer described as a slaughterhouse.

The scrutiny over El-Sayed's donor ties has already raised questions about how closely national Democrats vetted their nominee. The animal control record adds a visceral dimension that donor spreadsheets never could. Voters respond to candidates caught on tape saying things they'd rather take back, and they respond to stories about animals left to suffer under government neglect.

A candidate can survive a policy argument. Surviving a whistleblower who says she walked through cages every morning counting the dead is a different kind of test.