Yeah, we're going to the dogs here at RedState — at least this week. From our Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar, to our Deputy Managing Editor Susie Moore, to me, we hold an unfathomable well of affection and love for our dogs and the dogs of the world. So, stories like that egregious Palestinian activist blasting Americans dog ownership as "unclean," and this one I am about to lay out just makes our blood boil.
Read More: Hot Takes: It's No Contest, Between a Pro-Palestine Activist and Americans' Love for Their Dogs
Morning Minute: Barking Up the Wrong Tree
When we lived in Los Angeles, I regularly saw people begging and making their beds on the city sidewalks with their dogs in tow. Do these people bother to register their pets with animal services? Were the pets' vaccinations up-to-date? Probably not. Tragically, what is now being done to these dogs is even worse than anyone can imagine.
Investigative reporter and Townhall alum Julio Rosas shadowed Starts With One Today, an animal advocacy organization that seeks to help homeless dogs on Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles. These dogs are trapped in horrible conditions, treated terribly, placed in drug tents, and forced to live underneath RVs. The dogs are often used to test the drugs before the humans take them so that the humans can avoid overdose. Even more evil: the dogs are bred for dog fighting and other nefarious plans.
Warning: contains graphic/adult content
Rosas wrote on his Mostly Peaceful Media Substack:
“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.
Once we got to where the dog was, I could see Parker was not exaggerating.
The dog, Bishop, was covered in wounds that were infected, her fur was mangy, she was so thin her ribs could be seen, and she had a look of defeat in her eyes. What made the situation even worse was Bishop had been seen in much better condition by SWOT only a few months ago. The abuse and neglect she suffered in a short amount of time had brought her to the brink of death. A SWOT volunteer quickly drove Bishop away to the veterinarian.
Parker and Joey Tuccio were my guides for this assignment. While SWOT provides care to the humans of Skid Row, they focus on the four-legged residents as well. In a city that is filled with dog owners, Parker and Tuccio are heavily critical of the city and county governments of Los Angeles for allowing the abuse to continue.
THIS IS LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA ON SKID ROW. This is what @KarenBassLA allows to happen to dogs daily in plain sight. Mass breeding, selling, dogs being stabbed, shot with drugs, raped by humans... she gaslights and lies to the public. Creates fake "initiatives" which do nothing. pic.twitter.com/mh7r1VJDcH
— Stand Up For Pits Foundation, Inc (@SUFPFoundation) February 17, 2026
In 2011, my husband and I lived with our three dogs in a 120-square foot, one-bedroom duplex with a small yard. We had suffered tremendous losses thanks to the 2008 financial crash, including losing two homes. But we refused to let go of our dogs. They were our comfort and a lifeline to sanity, so we did our best to take care of ourselves and them. We were so broke that we couldn't even pay attention, but we made sure we all were fed and housed.
After about a year, we had notices taped to our door from the Los Angeles Animal Services which said we were in violation because our dogs were not licensed, and demanded we pay the pet licensing fee as well as subsequent penalties or else we would suffer consequences. So, on top of the vet bills, food, and grooming, we had to add on a pet registration fee for the City of Los Angeles. The fee was marginal compared to what it probably is now, but it was still a hit. Because we loved our dogs and didn't need animal services coming to our door to confiscate them, we paid it.
The point is there are supposed to be enforcement, penalties, and confiscation, especially with the level of abuse, neglect, and improper handling of dogs that is occurring on Skid Row. The Rabies vaccine alone comes with a medallion and a certificate. Groomers will not groom your dog and pet sitters won't kennel them unless this, and other vaccines, are up-to-date. But somehow the "unhoused" get a free pass on everything, because elected officials don't want to upset their delicate sensibilities or cause them undue hardship.
One of the volunteers with Starts With One Today has worked Skid Row for what she said has been nine years. She said it's a literal breeding ground, where dogs are used to produce more dogs, or simply do not live long because of the suffering, abuse, and neglect they undergo. When Rosas asked her why the county and city are not doing anything to enforce the laws on the books, the volunteer said:
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.
This is just another terrible reflection of how the California government penalizes its citizens, enacting unequal weights and measures against the law-abiding and taxpaying residents, while allowing homelessness to spread like a cancer, turning a blind eye to the graft, while bending over backwards to enable the vagrancy.
In Rosas' video, he plays a supercut of a Karen Bass interview with ABC7 anchor Marc Brown. Brown asks Bass about this issue of abused animals on Skid Row, and in her typical delusional fashion, Bass flat-out denied that the problem exists:
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.
The animals aren't neglected. Really?! Rosas' and other videos tell a different story. This is the equivalent to Bass' response in 2025 when a SkyNews reporter confronted her at the airport with the fact that she ran off to Ghana, and allowed the Pacific Palisades and Altadena to burn to the ground.
WATCH:
Reality TV star and L.A. mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt lost his home in the Palisades Fire, and has been vociferous about Bass' abject failure on that tragedy, along with this latest horror being foisted not just on suffering animals, but the taxpaying citizens of Los Angeles.
Karen Basura saying animals on Skid Row are not neglected is a lie and everyone knows it. We can see the abuse, the starvation, the lack of care with our own eyes. Denying it does not make it go away. It just proves how disconnected City Hall has become from reality. https://t.co/L0dg0o5MIb
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) February 16, 2026
Just like her terrible decision to reduce the funding for L.A. Fire which led directly to the catastrophic Palisades and Eaton wildfires, Bass is now cutting funding to animal shelters, making services there even worse than they normally are. Staycee Dains, the woman Bass appointed in 2023 as general manager of the Los Angeles Animal Services, went on an unexplained leave in 2024, after less than a year on the job. Annette Ramirez, the current general manager, is swimming upstream due to lack of staffing that has resulted in animal neglect and animal illness. Hundreds of animals a day are being euthanized without question, even when people have placed an interest in adopting.
These are the animals killed in JUST the LA County Shelters in 2025 up to Dec 10. When I inquired in the LA Supervisor’s office why laws are not enforced in her district, she said because it’s “culturally insensitive”. This is the result. This is a 2 and a half minute video. pic.twitter.com/fGxzmc8p42
— JoeyTuccio (@joey_tuccio) February 16, 2026
We recently lost one of our three fur babies to metastatic cancer, and we did all we could possibly do to try and save him. Sadly, he went down fast, and the most merciful and kind thing for us to do was to help him peacefully transition. Rosas' video broke my heart all over again. It was painful to watch because no animal should be subjected to this type of cruelty.
A verse in Proverbs says, "The godly care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel." This is unnecessary criminality and cruelty fostered and enabled by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, the girl squad of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and Governor Gavin Newsom who owns the festering boil of homelessness, like he owns Brylcreem.
Please WATCH. It's difficult, but so necessary. If you are able to support the work of Starts With One Today, visit their website.
Skid Row’s UnderDogs: Volunteers Confront Widespread Dog Abuse in LA
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) February 16, 2026
Starts With One Today brought me along to document the terrible conditions dogs are facing in Skid Row. Volunteers like @joey_tuccio say the city does little to prevent the abuse.
The video is tough to see but… pic.twitter.com/RKEyhQKLkY
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and bold policies, America’s economy is back on track.
Help us continue to report on the president’s economic successes and combat the lies of the Democrats. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member