Animal rescuers and advocacy groups say dogs living on Skid Row are suffering from neglect, abuse, inadequate veterinary care, and, in some cases, alleged exposure to fentanyl-contaminated drugs, while authorities dispute or caution against some of the most extreme claims. The situation has become a broader debate about housing insecurity, addiction, institutional accountability, and the limits of animal protection efforts in one of Los Angeles’ most vulnerable neighborhoods.
If it sounds cruel, that’s because it is. Activists and animal rescuers report that, on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, dogs and cats live amid neglect, abuse, and a severe lack of veterinary care.
But that’s only part of the story. While dogs living on the street in large cities may seem like a fairly common problem, in Los Angeles, the allegations take a more extreme turn: there are reports that some dogs are being used to test substances for fentanyl contamination, according to CBS, KTLA, and other media outlets.
Skid Row is an area in downtown LA gripped by a deep social crisis. According to data from Los Angeles County, the area has one of the county’s largest unhoused populations, as well as high rates of mental health crises, substance use disorders, and overdose deaths. Its unsheltered population includes higher shares of older adults, women, and African American residents than other areas with high rates of homelessness. People on Skid Row are also more likely to report concurrent mental health, physical health, and substance use issues. Within that context, rescue workers say the human crisis is also taking a toll on animals.
It’s not unusual to see animals living alongside unhoused people. This can sometimes mean inconsistent access to water, shade, veterinary care, or basic care. Activists have reported dogs tied up in the sun, locked in cages, exposed to high temperatures, sick, injured, or living amid feces and urine.
Are Dogs Suffering From Fentanyl Overdoses?
The most sensitive issue involves dogs allegedly used to test drugs. CBS quoted Victoria Parker of the rescue organization Starts With One Today as saying that some animals are being used to test substances for fentanyl contamination, and that they have seen several dogs suffer overdoses. KTLA also reported similar allegations from rescue workers on Skid Row.
However, other sources have urged caution around that claim. For example, an LAPD lieutenant told the LA Times that many viral claims about dogs being used for fighting or drug testing often lack credible evidence and concrete data police could act on.
In any case, what consistently emerges is a pattern of abandonment, neglect, illegal breeding, informal puppy sales, and a lack of veterinary care. Even those who question the most extreme accounts acknowledge that animal abuse and neglect on Skid Row are a real and long-standing problem.
Laws Exist… But What’s Missing Is Enforcement
For organizations working on Skid Row, the problem isn’t just individual cruelty toward animals, but the lack of an institutional response when such cases are reported.
Starts With One Today is one of the main sources of these reports. Its volunteers say they’ve been distributing supplies, rescuing animals, and asking the city for help for years. Co-founder Jonathan Parker summed it up to KTLA with a stark statement: “If we don’t do it, no one will.” Along the same lines, the organization said it receives daily calls about dogs allegedly being sold in exchange for drugs, animals dying on the street, illegal breeding, abuse, and neglect.
CBS reported a similar complaint: according to Joey Tuccio, a volunteer with the organization, when rescuers call the police, the police tell them to call animal control; and when they call animal control, they’re told to call the police. It’s a vicious cycle of referrals where, according to the activists, no one ever ends up taking responsibility.
The LA Times also quoted Tuccio as saying that they had called the police many times about dogs that were being beaten, neglected, or dying in the street, but that “nine times out of ten” the officers did not show up. That is the issue these organizations are highlighting: not only are animals suffering, but those who try to intervene find themselves caught between agencies, bureaucracy, and a lack of response.
PETA, the international animal rights organization, also entered the conversation, posting a video from Skid Row featuring actors Jesse Kove and David Chokachi, influencer Nathan the Cat Lady, and members of Starts With One Today. Their core message was straightforward: “We have laws in place. Enforce them.”
During the tour, according to PETA, the group saw dogs allegedly used for breeding, animals locked in cages, pets tied up with extremely short leashes, and a female dog that, according to activists, had been urinating blood for months without receiving veterinary care.
The organization highlights a key point: Los Angeles already has regulations on this issue. According to LA Animal Services, all dogs over four months of age within the city must be licensed and spayed or neutered, with some exceptions. In addition, a moratorium on new dog breeding permits has been in effect since May 2024. For PETA and other activists, then, the question is not whether legal tools exist, but why they are not being effectively enforced on Skid Row.
The organization Stand Up For Pits has also called out that lack of response. Its founder, Rebecca Corry, told CBS that animal abuse is taking place “in plain sight” and compared the situation to what would happen if dogs in the same conditions were found in Beverly Hills: they would be removed immediately, and the case would likely make headlines, she said.
PETA also stated that activists working in the area claim police and animal control officers told them they had received instructions from Karen Bass’s office not to enforce animal protection laws or spay/neuter requirements when cases involve unhoused people. Such an accusation is serious, but it has not been confirmed by the city.
In this vacuum, NGOs end up doing the most immediate work: they patrol Skid Row, document cases, distribute supplies and food for animals, work with guardians to get the animals to a veterinarian, facilitate treatments, rescue sick or injured dogs, and publicly pressure the city to enforce its own laws. But, according to rescuers, without a sustained response from the police, animal control, and city officials, each individual rescue amounts to little more than a temporary fix in a much larger crisis.
What LA Authorities Are Saying
Mayor Karen Bass has come under fire. Activists and organizations accuse her of failing to resolve the crisis, both on the streets and in municipal shelters. The LA Times reported that Stand Up For Pits sued the city and Bass, alleging that authorities are not enforcing animal cruelty laws on the streets and are allowing animals in shelters to live in deplorable conditions.
The city, however, maintains that it is taking action. Bass’s administration launched mobile spay-and-neuter clinics on Skid Row and an initiative to train 100 officers from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in identifying and handling cases of animal cruelty. The LAPD stated that this initiative led to the rescue of 45 dogs and resulted in six criminal cases involving animal cruelty and neglect. Bass also hired a new general manager for Animal Services, Gabrielle Amster, and helped secure a $14 million grant for municipal shelters in partnership with Best Friends Animal Society and the ASPCA.
The issue also gained political traction in 2026. Spencer Pratt made animal welfare a central pillar of his unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Los Angeles. Other candidates also took up the cause: Nithya Raman promised to reform the shelter system and expand spay-and-neuter programs, while John McKinney released a ten-point animal welfare plan as part of his campaign for city attorney.
The Deeper Collateral Damage of a Humanitarian Crisis
Homelessness in the U.S. has been rising for years, driven by several overlapping factors: a lack of affordable housing, a widening gap between income and rent, the expiration of federal pandemic aid and emergency rental assistance programs, limited access to medical services, a lack of social support networks, racism, and systemic marginalization. Skid Row is by no means an exception.
The streets are filled with people who cannot afford housing, who lack access to basic services and necessities, whose rights are constantly being violated, and who, often, simply do not want to be there, starving or dying of drug overdoses in one of North America’s wealthiest and highest-taxed cities.
For years now, these stories have been heartbreaking. People nearing retirement age, women with children, and young people whose futures have been shattered, all trying, as best they can, to make a home on the streets, amid violence, drugs, and hunger. All of this just a few minutes away from luxury condos, million-dollar cars, and the glitz of Beverly Hills and the surrounding areas.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that a minimum-wage worker in the U.S. would have to work about 98 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment at fair market rent in California.
In 2000, the LAPD launched the Safer Cities Initiative, a strategy associated with then-Police Chief William Bratton that added 50 officers to the area and sought to reduce crime through increased police presence, citations, and arrests for minor infractions and public order offenses. As a result, there were about 750 arrests per month; more than half were drug-related, and many of those arrested were not only unable to pay their fines but also ended up behind bars and out of treatment programs.
Research published by the Department of Justice showed showed that these measures did not reduce serious or violent crime and that the police simply ended up criminalizing unsheltered people and pushing them to cycle between jail and the streets instead of addressing housing, mental health, and addiction.
Of course, the current punitive political climate at the national level doesn’t help either. President Donald Trump announced less than a year ago that there would be no place on the streets for unsheltered people. The proposal called for deploying the National Guard, placing local police under federal command, and ordering the removal of unhoused people from the streets. He never clarified what he would do with them. Where would they go if, by definition, they had nowhere to go?
Civil society organizations—both those that care for people and those that care for animals—are doing what they can to fill the void left by the government. But clearly, it is not enough, nor should it be their responsibility alone.
As Los Angeles’ housing crisis has deepened, the collateral damage has extended well beyond people, reaching the animals that share those same streets, in a crisis that could have been mitigated if action had been taken sooner. Even though 91% of surveyed residents said they wanted stable housing, most still have no realistic path to obtaining it. Against that backdrop, the current animal crisis is not an isolated problem; it is unfolding within a broader structural humanitarian crisis.
In that sense, the crisis involving the dogs of Skid Row has evolved from a complaint raised by rescue workers into an issue rooted in Los Angeles’ housing crisis, social inequality, and, of course, politics. Amid accusations of institutional neglect and promises of reform, the city is left facing an uncomfortable question: Who is accountable when when human marginalization spills over onto animals, too—and when animal protection laws already exist, but no one seems willing or able to enforce them?
