Abdul El-Sayed’s Record at Detroit Animal Control Draws Scrutiny Amid Senate Campaign

Puppies by Akagarwal1275, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 | Jihad Watch

Progressive Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has attracted support from voters through his background as a physician and his advocacy for universal healthcare. However, less attention has been paid to his tenure overseeing Detroit’s public health system, including the city’s animal-control operations.

From 2015 to 2017, El-Sayed served as Executive Director and Health Officer of the Detroit Health Department, a position that placed Detroit Animal Care and Control (DACC) under his administration during a challenging period for the agency. In a 2017 interview with ABC News during his gubernatorial campaign, El-Sayed highlighted his accomplishments in Detroit, stating that his team had successfully rebuilt the city’s animal-control system.

Records obtained by the Daily Mail, however, paint a more complex picture. According to the documents, Detroit Animal Care and Control euthanized nearly 4,680 dogs and cats between 2015 and 2017 while El-Sayed led the health department. The highest figures were recorded in 2015, when the agency euthanized 1,988 dogs and 272 cats, totaling 2,260 animals. According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Animal Shelter Annual Report, this accounted for 26.4 percent of all dogs euthanized across the county that year.

While DACC did not publicly release euthanasia statistics for 2016, records reviewed by the Daily Mail indicate that the agency euthanized 1,056 dogs and 29 cats during that year. The figures have resurfaced as El-Sayed campaigns for higher office, prompting renewed discussion about his management record and the performance of Detroit’s animal-control system during his tenure.

(This Article was originally published by Jihad Watch)