It's safe to say that most Americans love dogs. The relationship between those lovable mutts and their people is like nothing else; there is no other domesticated animal that associates with us not by our choice, but theirs, the way dogs do. They are faithful companions, loyal helpers and guardians, and they love us without reservation. Whenever anyone proclaims "you can't buy love," it's a safe bet they've never had a puppy.
In some cultures, though, our traditional love for Canis lupus familiaris isn't shared. Which brings us to the current Democrat candidate for a Michigan Senate seat, Abdul El-Sayed, and his tenure as Detroit's health director. During this stint, El-Sayed was responsible for, among other things, Detroit's animal control department, and his handling of that department prompted an employee to describe it as a "dog slaughterhouse."
El-Sayed's campaign, of course, is touting a significant improvement in the shelter's live-release rate.
Detroit Animal Care and Control’s (DACC) live-release rate was roughly 20% to 26% when El-Sayed inherited the operation in late 2015 but climbed to about 61% to 62% by late 2016 — an improvement his campaign points to in arguing that the raw number of animals euthanized during his tenure obscures a turnaround from the dire conditions and euthanasia rates he inherited. The Daily Mail reported that records covering the period surrounding El-Sayed’s tenure showed 4,680 dogs and cats were euthanized, with 1,056 dogs and 29 cats getting euthanized in the first full calendar year DACC was under El-Sayed’s Health Department.
But an employee of the shelter had something else to say about it.
The scrutiny stems in part from an October 2015 whistleblower lawsuit filed by former Detroit Animal Control officer Brittany Roberts, who alleged animals died from inadequate food and medical care, were kept in filthy conditions and were subjected to other mistreatment, according to The Daily Mail. Roberts also reportedly alleged she was demeaned, harassed and ultimately fired after reporting the problems. The lawsuit landed the same month — and shortly before — the city moved Animal Control from the Detroit Police Department to the Health Department led by El-Sayed.
"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," Roberts said in 2015 as she accused the agency of neglect and mistreatment, according to The Daily Mail. "Every morning, we’d just walk around and see who was alive before we could even feed."
Could the problem have been a religious one? Many Muslims consider dogs to be unclean animals, and if you look around the Muslim world, you won't see dogs kept as pets, as a rule. In fact, life for stray dogs in many majority-Muslim places is brutal and short. Or was El-Sayed just inattentive? If so, why would Brittany Roberts have been fired for complaining about conditions in the shelter? We should note that cats were treated similarly, and many people love their pet cats as well, even if there's some doubt about cats and humans as to who domesticated who.
Most Americans love their dogs and their cats. Most Americans find this kind of treatment of domestic critters unconscionable. And, we hope, the voters of Michigan will, in November, remember those lost dogs and cats when they go to vote. After all, this lends a whole new meaning to the old saying, "I wouldn't vote for him for dogcatcher." In Detroit, during his tenure there as city health director, Abdul El-Sayed was the dogcatcher, and in that role, if this whistleblower is correct, it's not an understatement to say his management of the animal shelter was cruel and brutal.
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