Plus je vois les hommes, plus j’aime les chiens!
The more I see men, the more I love my dogs!
~ Alphonse de Lamartine 1850
Yeah. Whoo, boy.
I drew the short straw on this one, but it has to be talked about. Only it's tough, because every last one of us here at the blog is crazy for our animals - crazy for them. Even our late, great comrade Jazz Shaw, avid cat rescuer that he was, could not abide anyone who abused a single hair on an innocent animal's head. When the scandal broke about Fauci's beagle torturing, wasn't he all over it?
Yeah. He sure was.
David, too, as well as going ape over the repeated urgings by mainstream media to try to convince us it's time to wean ourselves away from our pets for the good of Gaia...
Idiot @AP: Pets cause global warming.
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) November 4, 2025
"One of the most climate intensive decisions we make is whether to own a pet. It’s for the same reason that humans have a big impact: They eat every day." 🙄https://t.co/3F3hb84PH6 pic.twitter.com/zA1mNvYPkg
...and the general sick fascination of the medical research industry with creating monsters from torture.
The last time I wrote about the madness infecting some corners of society was only a couple of months ago, as a preachy BBC, catering to the changing demographics of the face of British culture, tried an experiment in manipulative groupthink.
DO WE REALLY NEED SO MANY DOGS IN ENGLAND?
You knew exactly on which part of the population's behalf this message was being broadcast in order to modify behavior in the rest of what remains of Great Britain.
It didn't go well, as the intended recipients were assertively resistant to abandoning their beloved puppers in a blatant attempt to make the newcomers even more comfortable in their new home.
Fury at BBC for call to end 'dog-friendly spaces' - 'You've got a death wish!'
A BBC report calling for the end of dog-friendly spaces across the UK has sparked outrage online, with journalist Andrew Neil taking to X this afternoon to criticise the corporation amid a wave of furious viewers. The Scottish broadcaster re-tweeted the clip of the controversial dog-related news report and captioned the post: “BBC News clearly has a death wish.” Neil shared the video with his 1.2 million social media followers just hours after news broke that BBC Radio 2 presenter Scott Mills had been sacked over an allegation of "personal conduct".
...The BBC presenter ended the report by asking viewers if they think “it’s all gone too far”.
...Taking to the comments section, one person fumed: “Get f**ked BBC. I am now stopping my licence fee.” A second person remarked: “BBC really aren't reading the room at all.”
Always with the accommodation.
“One of the main problems in the countryside is dogs. Muslims don’t like dogs.”
— Dr. Maalouf (@realMaalouf) March 29, 2026
Liberal commentator complains the British countryside is racist and Muslims avoid going there because too many people walk their dogs, which are haram in Islam.
These people are really insane. pic.twitter.com/p2zXrOHzBr
As animal lovers, which I know after discussions about our ferals and Hegseth's cats, etc., so many of you are, too, these sorts of stories are incredibly upsetting. Particularly when it's someone in a position of public trust.
If you remember, plastic-faced, soon-to-be ex-congressman Shri Thanevar had his own run-in with animal cruelty charges after 170 abandoned and starving monkeys and beagles had to be rescued from his abandoned research facility. He blamed the bank.
John Fetterman's campaign ran vicious ads against Dr. Oz over research done during the time he was "principal investigator" in the Columbia University Institute of Comparative Medicine labs. Oz had to answer.
And now another senate candidate has a puppy problem, one not related to animals involved in research for critical cardiac advancements, but in his care as head of the Detroit Health Department, which also runs the animal shelter for the city.
One Abdul El-Sayed.
Now, in 2015, months before El-Sayed took over the position, a petition had been circulating to shut down the city's overcrowded, high-kill shelter because of the horrific numbers of animals being euthanized.
Claiming it euthanizes 95 percent of the animals it collects, an online petition to shut down Detroit's Animal Control seems to be galvanizing the community.
Nearly 12,000 people have signed a petition on change.org that demands the closure of the department that's responsible for keeping the streets safe from stray dogs and keeping stray dogs safe from a horrible fate at the hands of the elements.
Also, a protest took place Thursday led by Citizens for Change for Detroit Dogs & Cats with the same message: Shut down Animal Control. Detroit attorney Tamara French, who leads the group, said she has submitted 12 documents asking for information about Animal Control, which have so far gone unanswered.
...A report submitted to the Michigan Department of Agriculture shows Detroit Animal Control collected 3,869 dogs in 2013, and returned 157 of them to their owners. Another 2,258 cats were collected, with 13 of those getting reunited with their owner.
So it's obvious there was an existing problem.
What happened after El-Sayed took over a job he later bragged about is an entirely different horror story.
In the two years he held the post, the numbers were equally bad in terms of euthanizations.
...From 2015 to 2017, El-Sayed served as executive director and health officer of the Detroit Health Department – a powerful post that put him over the city's Animal Control operation during some of its darkest days.
In a 2017 ABC News profile of his bid for governor, El-Sayed pointed to his record as Detroit's health director, boasting that his team had 'rebuilt the animal control system.'
But according to records obtained by the Daily Mail, nearly 4,680 dogs and cats were euthanized by Detroit Animal Care and Control (DACC) during the period when El-Sayed was in his post at the Detroit Health Department.
The 2015 numbers were particularly stark. That year, DACC euthanized 1,988 dogs and 272 cats – a total of 2,260 animals.
But what is coming out from whistleblower testimony is the abuse and neglect these poor, helpless animals suffered before being put down, if they even lived that long, and the rate of animals who were family pets mistakenly murdered was appalling.
...That year, one dog was mistakenly euthanized while it was supposed to be at DACC only for a mandatory rabies quarantine, as reported by WXYZ 7 News Detroit.
One Michigander Theresa Sumpter wrote on Facebook at the time: '2016 shelter reports are in, except for Detroit Animal Controls not posted yet. Michigan Anti-Cruelty Society killing more dogs than anyone!'
According to The Detroit News, in 2017, DACC euthanized a further 1,404 dogs and 13 cats.
The whistleblower's testimony shortly after El-Sayed took over described a house of horrors, where they checked for dead dogs in cages before feeding the pups in the morning.
...They include specific incidents of animals dying from lack of food and medical care, filthy conditions that made animals sick, and deliberate animal cruelty on the part of at least one animal control officer.
“They feed dogs food on top of their feces. They hold them in cages that are too small for the animal to turn around. And it’s absolutely inhumane,” says Tamara French, a Detroit attorney and animal advocate familiar with the lawsuit.
Roberts also accuses the department of faulty record-keeping, and failing “on a regular basis to scan dogs for microchips so that the animals could be identified and reunited with their owner prior to being euthanized.”
Abdul El-Sayed's animal control ran a "slaughterhouse" that murdered over 4,000 puppies and kittens:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 14, 2026
"Dogs and cats were dying unnecessarily from disease...there were the allegations of neglect and even cruelty."
El-Sayed refused to let his staff respond after being exposed. pic.twitter.com/6WAhBQXeBR
El-Sayed would not allow staff to speak to the press, especially one Fox reporter who had gotten on his nerves by pressing for updates (screenshots of the texts at the link), and one of the animal activist groups involved in agitating for improvements derided El-Sayed for his fanciful estimation of the number of stray dogs in the city.
...A FOX 2 reporter, Hannah Saunders, publicly discussed El-Sayed's efforts to discourage coverage of protests at Detroit Animal Control.
In a Facebook post she wrote that he asked her not to cover any more protests at Detroit Animal Control.
She claimed he told her in a text, 'Could you please avoid it? It's already reeling and cameras are killing the team's morale [sic].'
El-Sayed claimed that the FOX 2 reporter does 'not cover things objectively.'
The Facebook group Citizens for Change for Detroit Dogs & Cats featured numerous pleas for new leadership at Detroit Animal Control throughout 2015, with residents posting photographs and evidence they said showed deplorable conditions and neglected animals.
The account also called out El-Sayed over his claim to Fox 2 Detroit in November 2015 that there were 100,000 stray animals roaming Detroit's streets, disputing the figure and accusing him of inaccurately portraying the scale of the problem.
'We need to make sure that we're doing our best by 100,000 dogs in the city. Perhaps more importantly, we need to make sure that the public health risk that's posed by that many stray animals in the city is mitigated. It's a hard balance to find but we're doing our best to find it,' El-Sayed said.
The Facebook group accused him of trying to 'create panic in Detroit.'
'That's 700 per square mile or a few hundred per city block. That's totally impossible.'
El-Sayed had a similar tussle with the local ABC affiliate over the tenor of their shelter stories, too.
We here at 7 Action News aim to speak up for the little guy and sometimes that includes man's best friend.
For months now, 7 Action News has highlighted the critical concerns of animal care at Detroit Animal Control and it seems at least one city official didn't like it.
On Monday, the City of Detroit Health Director Abdul El-Sayed barred 7 Action News from interviewing the new head of animal control, telling one of our reporters that it was because of the stories we've done on Detroit Animal Control.
For months 7 Action News has sought to bring attention to the deplorable conditions inside animal control that have led to the deaths of people's pets. We also sought to bring attention to the unnecessary killings of people's pets because they couldn't afford the fines and fees.
That's actually more important an indication of what kind of responsive public servant this guy is going to be, wouldn't you think? Who does he think he is?
In any event, the shelter's 2016 euthanasia figures are still a mystery, but El-Sayed, according to anecdotal evidence, seems to have relented enough to allow local animal welfare groups to step in to help ease the suffering (a budget that was eventually doubled didn't hurt either)...
The turn around at DACC was in large part, b/c of the generosity, support and direct involvement by the Michigan Humane Society, Detroit Dog Rescue and countless volunteers. “Temu Wolverine” seems to have forgotten but, was happy to hand it over. pic.twitter.com/QVBrUnKiAp
— Sojourner Speaks (@SpeaksSojourner) August 14, 2026
...while his shelter and animal control program were still under significant scrutiny.
...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.
PETA had yet to be heard from, for or against, but as I was finishing this, they piped up to the big bosses over at Townhall.
...When asked for comment regarding El-Sayed’s shocking actions, PETA told Townhall that the blame shouldn’t be laid at the candidate’s feet.
“Every public official who oversees an animal shelter inherits the same heartbreaking challenge: there are far more homeless dogs and cats than there are good homes for them,” a PETA spokesperson told Townhall. “Animal shelters should be open-admission, meaning they never turn animals away, and shelter workers are often forced to make difficult decisions when animals outnumber available homes.”
“Anyone upset about animals in shelters having to be euthanized should place the blame firmly where it belongs: on breeders and retailers who continue churning out animals, on the people who keep them in business by buying instead of adopting, and on those who fail to have their animals spayed or neutered, fueling the overpopulation crisis,” the spokesperson continued.
Um...that was a very carefully phrased argle-bargle salad for an organization so rabid they filed a complaint with the USDA over animal abuse allegations about 6 separate incidents that the Columbia University lab had self-reported and corrected.
But the DSA candidate gets, 'It's tough being in charge of a shelter. Cut the guy a huss'? Whut?
That makes my spidey senses tingle on their own.
Now, I honestly despise this snek, but I also think this might be a tempest in a teapot. The concerning part, if it is, is that El-Sayed's own arrogance is making it worse, much as it did back in 2015-2016 when he shunned the local press.
To me, learning about that arrogance is one more nail in his political coffin.
The fact is, we are a nation of animal lovers. When allegations like these surface, candidates need to answer quickly and comprehensively, or the public rightfully goes wild.
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