Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing renewed scrutiny after a story resurfaced on social media concerning an animal shelter he once ran where conditions were so bad that it was dubbed a “slaughterhouse.” When 7 Action News reported on the deplorable conditions in Detroit’s animal control in 2015, El-Sayed banned the station from interviewing the new head of animal control.
In the same year, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan transferred animal control office management from the Detroit Police Department over to the Detroit Health Department, which was led at the time by El-Sayed. The city’s animal control had already been under fire for having a high kill rate and horrific conditions that contributed to the death of the animals. Detroit Animal Control’s kill rate in 2015 was a shocking 74%.
A former employee of the shelter revealed that she was kicked to the curb after she complained about how bad things were and brought up allegations of animal abuse. The employee, Brittany Roberts, told the media, “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. The dogs, they don’t get exercise; they’re not let out of their cages; they’re fed on the floor with feces.”
“It’s our job to enforce the laws, and I just feel that me speaking up and asking, “I’m going to complain, I’m going to go to the state, I’m going to go higher.’ Eventually they said, ‘She’s got to go,'” Roberts added. The worker already had over 10 years of experience working various shelters across the country. She decided to take action against the shelter after seeing a dog that was hit by a car left for dead.
“That’s what we used, was the wheelbarrow to put the deceased dogs in the freezer. After I passed by her a second time, I walked in there and I realized she rolled her eyes back and looked at me and she was alive. She wasn’t dead,” Roberts recounted. “Every morning, we’d just walk around and see who was alive before we could even feed.”
A whistleblower lawsuit was filed that claimed sick animals were kept alongside other animals and that staff didn’t bother to check strays for microchips. It also revealed that drains were clogged, feces and urine backed up into kennels, and the shelter was infested with roaches and rats. A report from Fox 2 Detroit about the animal control facility revealed that images were taken that show dogs were left to die in their own blood, vomit, and feces.
"*" indicates required fields
According to a report from Townhall, the city of Detroit paid $63,000 in 2016 to settle the suit. A decade later and El-Sayed is now running for a Senate seat. Part of his platform is focused on a Medicare-for-all plan. He has repeatedly claimed to be a doctor, despite the fact he has never practiced medicine. His experience in the medical field is narrowed down to working for the government and writing a book.
El-Sayed is also opposed to the private insurance market and wants to abolish medical debt. Conservatives have pointed out that if El-Sayed couldn’t and wouldn’t provide proper care for animals, how can he be trusted to do better with humans? El-Sayed will now face Congressman Mike Rogers, a Republican, for the Senate seat in November.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video