The city of Los Angeles is failing both people and pets on Skid Row, and this piece lays out how negligence, policy choices, and political priorities have allowed abuse and trafficking of dogs to flourish while officials dodge responsibility.
I grew up around dogs and I refuse to accept the shrug that lets cruelty continue on our streets. Volunteers with Starts With One Today have been documenting horrific conditions where dogs are abused, bred for fighting, and used to test drugs before humans consume them. These are not isolated incidents; they reflect a broken system where enforcement is skipped in the name of compassion for people, while the animals and law-abiding residents suffer.
Walking Skid Row, reporters and volunteers describe scenes that are painful and persistent: dogs living under RVs, covered in wounds, and barely surviving. One volunteer relayed that some animals are raped and used as drug-testing tools so addicts can avoid overdosing themselves. That degree of cruelty demands not just outrage but concrete action from officials who answer to voters.
Julio Rosas followed volunteers as they tracked the condition of dogs in downtown Los Angeles and documented the grim reality. In his reporting, he watched volunteers rush to rescue a dog named Bishop, who had gone from reasonably healthy to near death in a matter of months. The scenes Rosas captured are hard to watch, and they show how neglect compounds quickly when oversight is absent.
“We have to hurry up. They’re about to leave,” Victoriah Parker told me as we were walking through Skid Row. We were heading towards the first dog in need while Parker was giving me the lay of the land of what she and volunteers with Starts With One Today see in their efforts to help the dogs who are trapped living on the streets.
Unsurprisingly, it’s beyond vile. I know the tendency is to not want to watch dogs suffering. I didn’t either. However, I ask you to not look away and join me in sharing their suffering and misery so their story gets amplified loudly enough to end this for good.
In addition to overbreeding to maintain an income, drug users also test their drugs on dogs to avoid overdosing and, according to Parker, they have seen cases of humans raping the dogs.
“The dog is literally about to die,” Parker emphasized to the others in our group to pick up the pace. We ran the last block.
City systems like licensing, vaccinations, and spay-and-neuter laws are meant to prevent these situations, but enforcement has been inconsistent at best. I was fined for an unpaid pet licensing fee years ago despite being low on funds, and I paid because I cared for my animals and feared losing them. That same standard seems not to apply in Skid Row where officials reportedly tell animal services not to enforce the rules to avoid targeting unhoused people.
So, we have heard, when we walked with law enforcement and the FBI and the Department of Agriculture, we asked them the same thing. And the Animal Services of L.A. was told by the Office of Karen Bass that they do not enforce the laws in Skid Row when it comes to animals because we don’t want to target the unhoused individuals. Which is why they’re not enforcing the spay and neuter laws, they’re not vaccinated, they’re not chipped, they’re not registered. And that’s pretty much what they said to our faces.
That admission, if accurate, reveals a dangerous double standard: policies meant to protect the public and animals are being dropped for political convenience. The result is obvious—more suffering, more disease, and more risk for everyone who lives and pays taxes in Los Angeles. It is a classic case of policy overreach that produces perverse outcomes.
When questioned by reporters, Mayor Karen Bass denied the scale of the problem. In a televised exchange she said, “Well, absolutely. I mean, the animals are suffering, the people are suffering, and they’re thousands of people, unfortunately, on the Skid Row area. And, so, we are looking at that as well. The animals are not neglected and as a matter of fact, one of the reasons we’ve been able to reduce street homelessness, is because when we house people, we take their animals as well.”
That statement clashes with on-the-ground testimony and video evidence showing rampant neglect. Denial isn’t a policy response. Redirecting blame or pointing to selective successes won’t heal animals or restore neighborhoods. Citizens deserve officials who will enforce laws fairly and protect both people and pets.
Beyond words, budget choices matter. Cuts to funding for fire and animal services undermine the ability to respond to crises and maintain humane shelter operations. Leadership that shrinks critical services ends up shifting the burden to volunteers and charities who do vital work on shoestring budgets while elected officials dodge accountability.
Watching footage of suffering animals is painful, but it should spur action rather than excuses. Los Angeles needs policies that protect animals, support responsible owners, and enforce the law without abandoning compassion for vulnerable people. That balance won’t be struck by soft-pedaling enforcement or by pretending the problem does not exist.
Volunteers and advocates are already doing the hard, heartbreaking work. It’s time for elected officials to stop dismissing the problem and start delivering the resources and enforcement that will stop trafficking, abuse, and neglect on Skid Row.
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