2026年8月14日 美国东部时间上午9:05 / 福克斯新闻
“我真的真的不愿相信这事”，吉尔·拜登前新闻秘书在X平台上发文
作者：亚历克·谢梅尔 福克斯新闻
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密歇根州民主党联邦参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·赛义德因其担任底特律卫生部门负责人期间的履历再次受到审查，在此期间，底特律动物管理部门被指控存在虐待动物行为，并有前雇员称其为“狗狗屠宰场”。
2015年末赛义德接手底特律动物保护与管理局（DACC）时，其活体放归率仅约20%至26%，但到2016年末已攀升至约61%至62%。赛义德的竞选团队指出，这一改善表明，其任期内被安乐死的动物绝对数量掩盖了他接手时的严峻状况和安乐死率的彻底扭转。《每日邮报》报道称，涵盖赛义德任期相关时段的记录显示，共有4680只猫狗被安乐死，在DACC由赛义德领导的卫生部门管辖后的首个完整自然年里，有1056只狗和29只猫被安乐死。
在与密歇根州联邦众议员黑利·史蒂文斯激烈的初选中胜出后，赛义德正争取密歇根州选民支持他进入美国参议院，但他管理底特律卫生部门以及该部门管辖下陷入困境的动物管理机构的履历再次引发审查。
拜登阵营资深人士就阿卜杜勒·赛义德跨党派行为发出尖锐警告
“我真的真的不愿相信这事。有人能核实一下吗？”前第一夫人吉尔·拜登的新闻秘书迈克尔·拉罗萨在X平台上质疑道。
美国联邦众议员黑利·史蒂文斯（左）与阿卜杜勒·赛义德（右）合影。（美联社照片/克里斯汀·诺曼）
“这太令人作呕了。阿卜杜勒·赛义德还想让密歇根民众信任他能管好他们的家庭，”赛义德的共和党对手迈克·罗杰斯在X平台上写道，“与此同时，底特律民众连让他管好他们的宠物都不信任。”
此次审查部分源于2015年10月前底特律动物管理官员布里塔尼·罗伯茨提起的举报人诉讼。据《每日邮报》报道，罗伯茨指控动物因食物和医疗护理不足死亡、被关在肮脏环境中，并遭受其他虐待。罗伯茨还据称指控自己在举报问题后遭到贬低、骚扰，最终被解雇。这场诉讼提起的当月，也正是该市将动物管理部门从底特律警察局移交至赛义德领导的卫生部门前不久。
“我几乎为自己曾参与导致这么多狗狗在笼子里死亡的团队而感到羞愧，”罗伯茨2015年在指控该机构疏忽和虐待时表示，“每天早上，我们甚至还没喂食，就先得四处看看哪些动物还活着。”
2015年3月开始在收容所工作的罗伯茨，据称在同年10月提起的举报人诉讼中指控，她目睹动物因缺乏食物和医疗护理、不卫生的环境以及违反州法律和部门政策的其他行为死亡。当时福克斯2号底特律频道报道称，罗伯茨称该收容所为“屠宰场”，并指控狗狗很少被安乐死，而是被忽视和虐待直至死亡。
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据《每日邮报》报道，“好朋友动物协会”将底特律动物保护与管理局2015年的救助率定为仅20%，而密歇根州农业与农村发展部《动物收容所年度报告》的数据则显示其活体放归率为26%。该媒体强调，2015年的数据显示共有1988只狗和272只猫，总计2260只动物被安乐死。
2026年7月9日周四，洛杉矶动物服务局西谷动物收容所的一只狗。（汉斯·古特克内希/媒体新闻集团/洛杉矶每日新闻 盖蒂图片社）
2012年以来，动物管理部门一直隶属于底特律警察局，2015年10月该市将其重新划归赛义德领导的卫生部门作为全面改革的一部分。据当地报道，改革随之展开：该市废除了收容所的“无收养”政策，开始与救援和寄养组织合作，梅利莎·米勒于2015年12月被任命为新的动物管理主管。该机构后来据称搬进了密歇根动物保护协会捐赠的更大场地，并扩大了与外部动物福利组织的合作。
收容所的各项数据得到改善，到2016年9月，当地报道称底特律动物保护与管理局的活体放归率达到61%，较前一年的26%有所上升，米勒在次月表示这一数字已达到62%——几乎是前一年的三倍。据《每日邮报》报道，DACC未公开披露2016年的安乐死数据，但他们获取的数字显示，该动物管理部门当年安乐死了1056只狗和29只猫。
时任底特律市长迈克·达根当时表示，此前的安乐死率“令人无法接受”，但改善后的比率“更符合国家标准”。
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与此同时，底特律市长办公室承认，DACC在隶属于警察局期间安乐死率极高，将其移交至卫生部门部分目的是改变该机构的文化。该办公室指出，收容条件简陋以及底特律刚摆脱破产状态是主要挑战，这些问题在很大程度上超出了动物管理部门的控制范围，因为市财政预算有限。
“当我成为底特律卫生部门新主管时，我接手了一项我从未接受过培训、也从未想过要负责的工作，那就是底特律动物管理，”赛义德在2024年的播客采访中表示，“当时情况一团糟，我需要一个我可以信任的人，能够为动物和底特律市市民尽职尽责。梅尔·米勒就是那个人。”
密歇根州联邦参议院民主党候选人阿卜杜勒·赛义德2026年7月18日在底特律歌剧院举行的“人民对抗强权”集会上发言。（莎拉·莱斯/盖蒂图片社）
赛义德的竞选团队强烈反驳任何将动物死亡事件定义为其履历污点的说法，他们告诉福克斯新闻数字频道，他接手时该机构程序过时、人员和场地问题严重，安乐死率极高。
竞选团队表示，赛义德将一线动物护理人员的工资提高了15%，努力为该机构配齐人员，将其迁至更现代化的场地，全面改革护理规程，并扩大旨在让动物活着离开收容所的合作项目。
“在阿卜杜勒·赛义德担任底特律卫生部门负责人期间，他大幅减少了动物安乐死数量，扭转了底特律动物管理机构糟糕的救助率，”竞选团队表示，他们认为这些改革最终使近80%的动物被安置到了家中。
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不过，在赛义德任期内，底特律的动物管理机构仍持续面临法律和运营问题。2016年2月，一名联邦法官暂时禁止底特律动物管理部门在没有搜查令、同意或紧急情况的情况下从居民家中扣押狗狗，此前居民提起诉讼，其中一些人指控他们的狗狗在城市收容所或离开后不久死亡。
底特律最终还在2016年7月同意支付6.3万美元，以和解罗伯茨的举报人诉讼。
亚历克·谢梅尔是福克斯新闻数字频道的政治记者，原籍北卡罗来纳州夏洛特，现居住在华盛顿特区-巴尔的摩都会区。
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6403341906112
El-Sayed in the hot seat after ‘sickening’ animal control record goes viral on social media
August 14, 2026 9:05am EDT / Fox News
‘I actually really really don’t want to believe this,’ Jill Biden’s former press secretary said on X
By Alec Schemmel Fox News
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Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is facing renewed scrutiny over his tenure as Detroit health director, during which Detroit’s animal control department was beset by allegations of animal mistreatment and reportedly branded a “dog slaughterhouse” by a former employee.
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.
After winning a bruising primary against Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., El-Sayed is asking Michigan voters to send him to the U.S. Senate, but his record running Detroit’s Health Department and the troubled animal-control operation under its authority has generated renewed scrutiny.
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“I actually really really don’t want to believe this. Can someone verify?” questioned Michael LaRosa, former first lady Jill Biden’s one-time press secretary.
U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, pictured left, next to Abdul El-Sayed, pictured right.(AP Photo/Kristen Norman)
“This is sickening. Abdul El-Sayed wants Michiganders to trust him with their families,” El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, wrote on X. “Meanwhile, Detroiters couldn’t even trust him with their pets.”
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.”
Roberts, who began working at the shelter in March 2015, reportedly alleged in her whistleblower lawsuit filed that October that she witnessed animals die from a lack of food and medical care, unsanitary conditions and other violations of state law and department policy. FOX 2 Detroit reported at the time that Roberts called the shelter a “slaughterhouse” and alleged dogs were rarely euthanized properly, but instead were neglected and mistreated until they died.
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Best Friends Animal Society put Detroit Animal Care and Control’s 2015 save rate at just 20%, while numbers from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Animal Shelter Annual Report placed its live-release rate at 26%, according to The Daily Mail. The 2015 numbers showed 1,988 dogs and 272 cats, and a total of 2,260 animals were euthanized, the outlet highlighted.
A dog at the LA Animal Services West Valley Animal Shelter in Chatsworth on Thursday, July 9, 2026.(Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/The Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
Before the city moved it back under El-Sayed’s health department in October 2015 as part of a broader overhaul, Animal Control had been under the Detroit Police Department since 2012. Changes followed, as the city scrapped the shelter’s no-adoption policy and began working with rescue and foster organizations, while Melissa Miller was brought in as a new animal-control director in December 2015, according to local reporting. The operation later reportedly moved into a larger facility donated by the Michigan Humane Society and expanded partnerships with outside animal-welfare groups.
The numbers improved and by September 2016, local reporting put Detroit Animal Care and Control’s live-release rate at 61%, up from 26% the previous year, and Miller said the following month that the figure had reached 62% — nearly triple the prior year’s rate. According to The Daily Mail, the DACC failed to publicly report its 2016 euthanasia figures, but numbers they obtained showed the animal control unit euthanized 1,056 dogs and 29 cats that year.
Then-Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said at the time that the previous euthanasia rate had been “unacceptable,” but that the improved rate was “more in line with national standards.”
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Meanwhile, the Detroit mayor’s office acknowledged that DACC had a very high euthanasia rate while it was still under the police department and was transferred to the Health Department in part to change the operation’s culture. The office cited inadequate shelters and Detroit’s emergence from bankruptcy as major challenges that were not entirely within Animal Control’s control because of city budget constraints.
“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,” El-Sayed said during a 2024 podcast interview. “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.”
Michigan Democratic candidate for Senate Abdul El-Sayed speaks at The People V. The Powerful rally at the Detroit Opera House on July 18, 2026, in Detroit, Michigan.(Sarah Rice/Getty Images)
El-Sayed’s campaign pushed back strongly against any suggestion that the animal deaths define his record, telling Fox News Digital that he inherited an operation with outdated procedures, severe staffing and facility problems and an extraordinarily high euthanasia rate.
The campaign said El-Sayed raised frontline animal-care officer pay by 15%, worked to fully staff the operation, moved it into a more modern facility, overhauled care protocols and expanded partnerships aimed at getting animals out of the shelter alive.
“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,” the campaign said, arguing that the changes eventually resulted in nearly 80% of animals being placed in homes.
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However, Detroit’s animal control operation continued to face legal and operational problems during El-Sayed’s tenure. In February 2016, a federal judge temporarily blocked Detroit Animal Control from seizing dogs from homes without a warrant, consent or emergency circumstances amid a lawsuit brought by residents, some of whom alleged their dogs died at the city shelter or shortly after leaving it.
Detroit also ultimately agreed in July 2016 to pay $63,000 to settle Roberts’ whistleblower lawsuit.
Alec Schemmel is a Politics Reporter for Fox News Digital who is originally from Charlotte, North Carolina but now resides in the Washington D.C.-Baltimore Metro Area.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6403341906112