Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was busted begging top animal charity the ASPCA to “bury” his candidate survey after it emerged he botched his answer to a question about what type of dog was his favorite.
El-Sayed, formerly the Wayne County, Michigan director of the Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services, apparently wrote “dead” in response to the question, not realizing the ASPCA was trying to ascertain whether he preferred Golden Retrievers to French Bulldogs or Beagles or some other type of dog.
An ASPCA public affairs staffer was alleged to be behind an anonymous X account that posted a picture of the botched questionnaire and an allegation that El-Sayed had personally contacted the organization to ask them not to release it. The El-Sayed campaign has not denied the survey’s authenticity nor the request that ASPCA bury it, and has said only that it was submitted “in error.”
El-Sayed is known for euthanizing a massive number of dogs in the Wayne County DHHVS gig.
According to Fox News, “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 overwhelming majority of animals euthanized were indeed dogs, with Fox News noting that “The 2015 numbers showed 1,988 dogs and 272 cats, and a total of 2,260 animals were euthanized, the outlet highlighted.”
El-Sayed is Muslim; many Muslims tend to dislike dogs and regard them as unclean, though it is worth noting that in some Muslim countries like Turkey, dogs are widespread with many locals liking and caring for them.
El-Sayed’s Republican rival, Mike Rogers, reportedly completed the survey with an answer designed to please all dog lovers, refusing to pick a favorite, saying he liked all of French Bulldogs (the most popular breed of dog in America), plus Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds. He also continued his answer on a separate page, adding that he loves watching “Paw Patrol,” “101 Dalmatians,” “Scooby Doo,” “Bluey,” and also likes Snoopy, Pluto, and Goofy, and his favorite book as a kid was “Clifford.”
In the wake of the request to bury the candidate survey, it has also emerged that El-Sayed repeatedly watched “Lady and the Tramp” as a kid, expressing to numerous friends at the time that he thought the Siamese cats in the film got a bad rap and were the subject of unfair, anti-AAPI, anti-feline discrimination on the part of Walt Disney, who he branded a “known racist.”
The El-Sayed campaign declined to comment.
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