‘Go Back for the Dogs’: PETA Holds Vigil for Skid Row Dogs Outside LAPD Headquarters
You may know Skid Row as the roughly 50-block area in downtown Los Angeles where thousands of unhoused residents live in tents, shelters, and temporary encampments. What fewer people see is that animals are suffering there, too.
Reports allege that people are beating, starving, illegally breeding, and even killing dogs on Skid Row—all while city officials, led by Mayor Karen Bass, look the other way.
PETA’s campaign puts Mayor Bass on notice: Animals on Skid Row can’t wait any longer for leaders to do their jobs. Keep reading to see how we’re working to hold officials accountable and protect animals in the area.
October 2026: PETA to LAPD: Go Back to Skid Row, This Time for the Dogs
Following a large-scale drug operation on Skid Row, PETA is calling on the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to go back for the dogs, as illegal breeding and cruelty to animals continue in the area.
Joined by local rescue organization Starts With One Today, PETA supporters gathered outside LAPD headquarters for a memorial vigil, holding up images of dogs who have suffered and died on Skid Row—and demanding action for those still suffering there.
Our message was clear: Los Angeles needs to enforce its animal protection laws, including spay/neuter requirements, everywhere from Skid Row to Bel Air.
September 2026: Records Reveal Lack of Action for Animals on Skid Row
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has made bold claims that under her direction, authorities are cracking down on animal abuse on Skid Row—but public records tell a different story. At a press conference, PETA released these records, exposing a lack of law enforcement presence in Skid Row and the exaggerated claims from Bass’ office.
Armed with images of dogs languishing on Skid Row, representatives from PETA and Starts With One Today also discussed the suffering that continues in plain sight—and the city’s failure to stop it.
What the Records Revealed
PETA’s public records request sought documents detailing LAPD and Los Angeles Animal Services activity in the Skid Row area after Mayor Karen Bass announced a task force to address animal abuse there. The records produced so far largely consist of reports of food and supply distributions, a small number of animal-related service calls, and minimal documented enforcement activity.
July 2026: PETA Places A Full-Page Call for Action in the Los Angeles Times
After months of apparent inaction from city officials, PETA took our call directly to Los Angeles residents with a full-page Los Angeles Times ad demanding one simple thing: Protect animals. Enforce the law.
June 2026: Jesse Kove and David Chokachi Go Inside Skid Row’s Cruelty to Animals Crisis
“We have laws in place. Enforce them.”
That’s the message in a PETA video that takes actors Jesse Kove and David Chokachi, and influencer Nathan the Cat Lady, into Skid Row—one of Los Angeles’ most visible and long-overlooked crisis zones.
Guided by the founders of Starts With One Today (SWOT), Jonathan and Victoriah Bech Parker, and volunteer Joey Tuccio, the group traverses the area both on foot and by vehicle and witnesses cruelty and neglect firsthand. First, they passed a storefront where a female Yorkie is apparently being bred with her own sons. Then, they stop near a family of caged pugs who can do nothing but peer out between the bars of a pen lined with a dirty tarp.
We were told that one of the pugs exploited for breeding gave birth less than a week prior, but was hit by a car and killed due to carelessness. A male pug was tied up ten feet away, his short tether limiting his entire world to just a few feet.
The group could do nothing to help a mother dog who has allegedly been urinating blood for months because her owners refuse veterinary care and continue to breed her illegally.
Under current law in Los Angeles, dogs must be spayed or neutered. The city also has a breeding moratorium that is triggered whenever area animal shelters exceed 75% capacity—a provision that has been in effect continuously since its passage in 2024.
But laws do not help animals if officials do not enforce them. On Skid Row and across Los Angeles, animals suffer while the city turns a blind eye.
After SWOT reported the situation to Animal Control, Bech Parker says officers issued a citation but left the dog where she was. According to activists working to help, police and animal control officers report that they’ve been told by Mayor Bass’s office to stand down and NOT apply animal protection and spay/neuter laws to unhoused people.
How You Can Help Dogs on Skid Row
Skid Row itself is a microcosm of Los Angeles as a whole, where the mandatory spay/neuter ordinance, breeding moratorium, and anti-cruelty laws are widely ignored.
How long will Mayor Bass be allowed to fail the city’s animals?
Please urge Mayor Bass to enforce Los Angeles’ animal protection laws on Skid Row and throughout the city.
