Fact check: What happened to Detroit dogs and cats under Abdul El-Sayed?

Critics target Abdul El-Sayed over animal euthanasia numbers in Detroit when he served as health director, beginning in late 2015
Many of the problems mentioned, including a whistleblower lawsuit, related to the time before animal control reported to El-Sayed.
Animal euthanasia decreased in El-Sayed’s first full year of oversight, and remained below the 2015 level until he left in 2017.

Weeks after his primary victory, Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing attacks from Republicans who claim thousands of dogs and cats were euthanized under his oversight.

El-Sayed oversaw Detroit’s animal control operation from late 2015 to early 2017 as part of his role as the city’s health director, and critics this month have assailed his work and used it to raise money.

The Republican National Committee claims 4,000 dogs and cats were killed “under his watch,” the National Republican Senatorial Committee is selling “dogs against Abdul” bandanas, and GOP nominee Mike Rogers has called the matter “sickening.”

“Abdul El-Sayed wants Michiganders to trust him with their families,” Rogers wrote on social media. “Meanwhile, Detroiters couldn’t even trust him with their pets.”

El-Sayed’s campaign defends his work, saying he inherited an office with staffing issues and outdated procedures and helped reform the agency.

“During Abdul El-Sayed’s tenure as Detroit Health Director, he dramatically reduced animal euthanizations and reversed the Detroit Animal Control’s abysmal save rate – nearly 80% of animals were placed into loving homes because of his implemented changes,” Roxie Richner, El-Sayed’s spokesperson, said in a statement.

Related:

Rogers’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

So which account is accurate?

Animal euthanasia in Detroit is among the claims Bridge Michigan is reviewing in the state’s fiercely competitive US Senate race between El-Sayed, who won a heated primary race, and Rogers.

Here are the facts:

The background

Problems within Detroit’s animal control operation were reported by local media at the time but resurfaced last week in a story published by the Daily Mail. The conservative British tabloid reported that more than 4,500 dogs and cats were euthanized in Detroit under El-Sayed’s health department.

Republicans have boosted similar claims on social media and repeated a decade-old quote from a whistleblower, who had called the Detroit facility a “slaughterhouse” after filing an October 2015 lawsuit claiming widespread dysfunction, including a rat and roach infestation and not doing more to reunite animals with their owner before being euthanized.

El-Sayed started as Detroit’s health director in August 2015, and he was not named in the lawsuit, which the city later settled. Then-Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan moved oversight of animal control to the health department from the police department in October, the same month the lawsuit was filed.

At the time, the city said moving oversight of Detroit Animal Control had been discussed before the lawsuit was filed, Michigan Public reported in October 2015.

The numbers

Detroit Animal Control euthanized 2,260 dogs and cats in 2015, according to an annual report filed with the state.

In 2016, the first full year under El-Sayed’s oversight, the city reported 1,107 animals were euthanized by the renamed Detroit Animal Care and Control.

El-Sayed left the job to run for governor in early 2017. Detroit’s animal control operation euthanized 1,385 animals that year.

The Republican National Committee’s claim that 4,000 kittens and puppies were killed “under his watch” likely overstates the count significantly. That’s because it includes full year totals for 2015 and 2017, even though El-Sayed only oversaw animal control for small parts of those years.

All told, El-Sayed had oversight for about 16 months from October 2015 to February 2017. State records do not detail euthanized animals by month, but records show 4,752 were euthanized over the full three years.

Using monthly averages, it’s reasonable to conclude about 1,902 dogs and cats were euthanized during the time El-Sayed had oversight of the city’s animal control operation.

For comparison, Detroit Animal Care and Control reported 2,559 dogs and cats were euthanized in 2025, which was more than double the 1,101 in 2024, records show. The figures exclude euthanasia requested by owners.

El-Sayed’s oversight

Among the first steps El-Sayed took with Detroit’s animal control operation was to replace its director and bring in Melissa Miller, who had experience with animal shelters and crisis responses.

By the time she started in December 2015, El-Sayed had already formed a committee with animal control professionals to review the situation and mandated that 25 dogs a week be made available for transferring out to area rescues or shelters, rather than euthanized, Miller told Bridge in an interview.

“He was very responsive and identified that new leadership needed to be there,” Miller said.

Initially, there was no budget for food and no consistent animal care, according to Miller, who said that made it more difficult for animals to be adopted out.

During her tenure, which ended in October 2017, Miller said Detroit Animal Care and Control was restructured through city ordinance and continued to prioritize transferring animals out to shelters and rescues.

Last week, as critics scrutinized El-Sayed’s work at the health department, Miller defended him in a social media post.

In the seven years before he took over, more than 80% of animals that came into Detroit’s animal control operation were euthanized, she wrote. But “in two short years, over 65% of dogs and cats left to go to families through transfers to rescues and shelters.”

The bottom line

The GOP claim that Detroit euthanized 4,000 dogs and cats under El-Sayed’s watch likely overstates the real total by at least double.

While Detroit Animal Control euthanized more than 2,000 animals in 2015 and a former employee did detail widespread issues in a lawsuit that was settled, most of that occurred before oversight was shifted to El-Sayed’s health department.

El-Sayed brought in a new animal control director months after he took over the health department, as part of a broader effort to address a range of issues within the animal control operation.

Fewer animals were euthanized in 2016, the first full year under El-Sayed’s health department. Numbers for 2016 through 2018 were also below 2015.