LOS ANGELES – Mayor Karen Bass and her administration are not doing enough to protect animals stuck on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. That’s the message from animal advocates on the ground.
Despite their issues with the current mayor, they’re not sure they want a change at City Hall come November.
Advocates set up their Thursday news conference next to the area’s row of tents, many of which contained dogs.
Representatives from PETA and Starts With One Today came together to advocate for the dozens, if not more than 100, dogs suffering or being abused on Skid Row.
Skid Row animals
“The crisis of illegal breeding, abuse, and neglect of dogs on Skid Row is being allowed to spiral out of control without more than the most minimal effort from the city to stop it,” Ashley Byrne, PETA’s director of outreach communications, said during the news conference.
During that news conference, advocates laid out numerous instances of abused animals they’ve helped over many years, many of which too graphic to describe.
There is a long history of animal abuse in the area with recent allegations still ongoing.
Mayor Karen Bass called for a task force to investigate this issue in November 2025.
But new data today unveiled by advocates showed that the task force to protect dogs has had very little bite. They unveiled new data they received through public records.
The data showed that between that announcement and April of this year, a grand total of zero animals were removed from Skid Row due to cruelty.
They also found no citations handed out from Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS).
The advocates did not pull any punches when talking about LA’s current leadership.
“Karen Bass has lied to the public, saying that her pilot program is successful,” Joey Tuccio, co-founder of Starts With One Today, said. “It is not successful.”
The group made a plea for the homeless community to be treated like average taxpayers when it comes to animal abuse.
“There shouldn’t be a reason why you guys get separate rules, have to not follow the laws that’s going on down here,” Jonathan Parker, another co-founder of Starts With One Today, said. “It’s like it’s a free-for-all type of situation going down here. They’re able to do whatever they want, be abusive to kids, be abusive to women, be abusive to the dogs and the animals.”
Walking to and from the news conference, Straight Arrow clearly saw at least a dozen dogs living in extremely subpar and/or dangerous conditions.
“There is no justification for exempting anyone from laws that were written to protect animals, whether they live on Skid Row or in a mansion,” Byrne told Straight Arrow.
Bass’ response
“At Mayor Bass’ direction, LAPD and the LA Animal Services Department implemented a permanent partnership to investigate allegations of animal cruelty, illegal breeding and animal sales on Skid Row,” Bass’ office said in a statement to Straight Arrow. “Since the partnership launched, more than 100 LAPD officers have been trained, dozens of animals have been rescued, and multiple citations and arrests have been made.”
The mayor sent a similar statement to advocates back in April.
According to records obtained by PETA, the mayor’s office only reported 35 spay/neuter surgeries for animals on Skid Row and 75 bags of food delivered.
They also found that of the 10 calls to LAAS, none of the records showed any animals being removed for abuse or owners cited. And calls for service from the LAPD showed little detail on what became of those calls.
“Her department admitted that there had been only five arrests for cruelty in a period of six months,” Byrne told Straight Arrow.
Advocates even questioned those arrests.
“Most of them had nothing to do with animal cruelty,” Tuccio said. “They were arrested for other things, and they just dabbled in the animal cruelty just to try to shut us up.”
Bass said her office has offered free spay/neuter clinics and there have been at least two this year.
“The Mayor knows there is more work to be done, and her message is clear: if you abuse or neglect an animal, you will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Bass’ office said.
Advocates say they’ve met with members of Bass’ office but not Deputy Mayor Jacqueline Hamilton, who oversees the Skid Row area.
Hamilton has accused the advocates of “grandstanding.”
“That was their response to us saving over 200 dogs from Skid Row,” Tuccio said. “It is a disgrace. And I hope that Karen Bass takes back her statement that her pilot program is successful because it is, in fact, an absolute failure.”
When it comes to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and LAAS, they’ve reportedly told advocates there’s not much more they can do right now.
The advocates say those agencies have received specific instructions from the mayor’s office.
“They have gotten a directive from the mayor’s office not to enforce the laws with unhoused individuals when it comes to illegal breeding, chaining, the spay/neuter ordinance,” Byrne told Straight Arrow.
Midterm election
With their clear issues with Bass, you might think these advocates will want to see her voted out of office in November’s upcoming election. Bass is facing LA City Councilwoman Nithya Raman.
“Nithya is worse,” Victoriah Bech-Parker, another co-founder of Starts With One Today, told Straight Arrow. “We had a meeting with Nithya in our living room for 90 minutes, private meeting, and she at that time was still the chair of the homeless community. She couldn’t mention one single shelter on Skid Row.”
Requests for comment from Raman’s office were not returned.
With no great options on the table, Bech-Parker said reelecting Bass might not be the worst thing, since this is her last term and Raman could still get two.
“If you had to go to prison, and you got the choice, do you want to choose four years or eight years?” she said.
When it comes to what comes next with this situation on the streets of downtown LA, all advocates agreed that homeless people should not own pets.
“If you have an animal and you’re homeless, you shouldn’t be able to keep it because you can’t even take care of yourself,” Parker said.
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