Homeless in Los Angeles Accused of Using Dogs as Live Fentanyl Detectors in Brutal 'Throwaway' Culture on Skid Row

Animal rescuers working in Los Angeles' Skid Row are raising the alarm over a practice they say has become a grim pattern. They allege that drug users expose dogs to narcotics, including fentanyl-laced substances, to test whether a supply is safe to consume.

The allegation, made on the record by frontline volunteers, forms part of a wider crisis of animal abuse in one of America's most densely populated homeless encampments. Pit bulls are confined in wire crates in 90-degree heat, pregnant dogs give birth without veterinary care, and animals are bred in bulk and sold for cash or traded for drugs.

Despite repeated calls for enforcement from advocates, animal control agencies and California lawmakers, rescuers say the response from city and county officials has been, at best, inconsistent.

Drug Testing on Dogs, Volunteer Accounts

Victoriah Parker, co-founder of the nonprofit Starts With One Today, has worked with dogs on Skid Row for eight years. Speaking to CBS Los Angeles, she described what she and other volunteers say they witness regularly. 'What they also use their dogs for is to test their drugs to make sure there is not fentanyl, they are not laced. So we have had several dogs overdose on fentanyl down here,' Parker said.

Jennifer Sims, a co-founder of the same organisation, put the broader picture bluntly in remarks to Fox 11 Los Angeles. 'The majority of these animals are bred over and over, and they are exchanged for a hit of crack or ten dollars. Their life has very little value,' Sims said. She added that a common misconception frames the issue as one between homeless people and their companion animals. 'The problem is that there are drug users and mentally ill people who are using animals for their gain,' she said.

Investigative reporter Julio Rosas, who embedded with Starts With One Today for ground level reporting published in February 2026, described volunteers pointing out locations across Skid Row where dogs had died from overdoses after eating discarded drugs or being deliberately exposed.

His reporting, published by Mostly Peaceful Media, noted that drug testing on dogs, overbreeding for income and the use of animals as barter currency all occur within the same blocks of downtown Los Angeles.

Scale of Animal Neglect on Skid Row and Rescuer Accounts

Parker told KTLA that the situation has worsened in recent years. 'We have seen pit bulls covered under tarps in the sun, dogs without access to food or water,' she said. In one case documented by volunteers, a dog taken to a vet was found to have a ruptured spleen, fluid in her abdomen and cancer. She did not survive. Volunteers with Starts With One Today also rescued a five-month-old pit bull named Rocky who tested positive for parvovirus after its owner allowed the animal to be taken for treatment.

The Stand Up For Pits Foundation separately posted video footage of pit bulls in wire crates covered by plastic tarps in 90-degree heat. Rebecca Corry, the foundation's founder, said, 'There is just animal abuse happening in plain sight. And it continues to be ignored year after year after year, and it makes no sense because the laws apply to everybody.'

Volunteers say dogs are used as currency, exchanged for drugs or small amounts of cash, with puppies bred repeatedly from the same animals and sold from shopping carts on the streets.

A 2024 RAND Corporation survey of unsheltered people in three Los Angeles neighbourhoods,
including Skid Row, found that 40% of respondents listed 'being allowed to stay with a partner, child or pet' as one of their top housing-related needs. Animals are, for many residents, the only consistent source of companionship in an environment defined by instability.

That bond, advocates stress, is what makes the exploitation of those same animals particularly difficult to address, as enforcement against neglect can be perceived as enforcement against the people who own the animals.

DA Prosecution Pledges and Enforcement Gap on the Ground

In May 2025, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced that his office had filed 25 animal cruelty cases, including 18 felonies, over a six-week period. 'Let me be clear: if you harm an animal in our community, we are watching you and we will find you,' Hochman said in an official statement. 'Animal cruelty is a serious crime. It is also a red flag for possible future violence, and we treat it exactly as it should be treated, with zero tolerance and aggressive prosecution.' One case involved a bulldog found with illegal drugs in her system after being beaten and left to die.

Despite those pledges, frontline advocates say Skid Row itself remains largely without enforcement. Joey Tuccio of Starts With One Today told CBS Los Angeles, 'The police tell us to call animal control. Animal control tells us to call the police.' In November 2025, Mayor Karen Bass announced a joint programme pairing LAPD officers with an embedded Animal Services employee and training more than 50 officers in animal welfare investigation. According to ABC7 Los Angeles, the pilot rescued 26 dogs and assisted 12 others with spay and neuter certificates. Advocates welcomed the initiative but questioned its longevity.

Their scepticism proved well-founded. In a February 2026 letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, PETA wrote that after the single high-profile puppy mill bust in early December 2025, 'advocates report that they never saw evidence of the task force again, and officers were recorded stating that the programme was disbanded after a couple of trainings.'

PETA also cited a Los Angeles municipal rule prohibiting dog breeding when city shelters exceed 75% capacity, a threshold the organisation said has been surpassed for years, while breeding on Skid Row continued unimpeded.

Until Los Angeles closes the gap between its prosecution pledges and the daily reality on the ground, the dogs of Skid Row will keep paying the price for a crisis that no amount of press releases has yet reached.