LA Mayoral Candidate Spencer Pratt Claims Skid Row Dog Abuse Is Worse Than You Think: 'They're R**ing the Dogs'

Reality TV star turned mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt says animal abuse on Los Angeles' Skid Row goes far deeper than the public realises, and rescue volunteers have spent years documenting evidence that backs him up.

Appearing on Fox News on 30 May 2026, Pratt used language that shocked viewers when describing what he alleged is happening to dogs in the downtown LA neighbourhood. His remarks arrived days before the city's mayoral primary, and just weeks after the legal nonprofit Advancing Law for Animals sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins demanding a federal investigation.

On-the-ground volunteers have been sounding the alarm for years, largely without a meaningful response from city officials.

What Pratt Said and Why

During a Fox News interview with Kayleigh McEnany, Pratt made allegations that went far beyond anything previously reported by city officials. 'It's so disgusting that even testing your drugs on a dog is the least of the worst of what these demons are doing to these poor animals. They're lighting them on fire, they're r**ing these dogs, they're abusing them, they're breeding them to the point that they die because they've been so over-bred,' he said, according to the Washington Examiner.

Pratt also released a nearly 10-minute video on X outlining a five-step animal welfare plan, which includes creating a PAWS (Protecting Animal Welfare and Safety) task force within the LAPD. 'We cannot rescue our way out of this animal crisis,' he said in the clip.

He pledged zero tolerance for animal abuse and vowed to overhaul the city's shelter system, which he described as chronically underfunded and mismanaged. His campaign positions Pratt against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and city councillor Nithya Raman in the June primary.

The Dogs of Skid Row

The conditions Pratt described are not new allegations. Volunteers from the nonprofit Starts With One Today have been documenting them since the organisation was co-founded by Victoria Parker in 2020. In an April 2026 investigation, KTLA reporter Kacey Montoya found dogs left tied in direct sunlight without water, pit bulls confined inside cages under tarps and animals being sold on the street or exchanged for drugs.

Volunteer Joey Tuccio told KTLA that his team receives daily reports of dogs dying on the streets or being handed over in exchange for narcotics. 'Every day we get another call, saying people are trying to sell their dog for drugs, and this dog is dying on the streets,' he said. 'We try to come every Sunday and all we see are dogs being bred, dogs being abused and neglected.' He told the outlet that some individuals on Skid Row have been using dogs to test drug supplies, deliberately exposing them to substances to determine whether fentanyl is present.

In one case documented by Parker's organisation, a dog taken to a vet was found to have a ruptured spleen, fluid in her abdomen and cancer; she did not survive. Another dog required a full leg amputation after a volunteer encountered the animal with a wound so advanced that, per Tuccio's account to The California Post, a person had been attempting to treat it with tweezers. In a separate incident, a single woman was found keeping eleven dogs and cats in four cages.

Parker told KTLA the situation has deteriorated markedly in recent years. 'We have seen pit bulls covered under tarps in the sun, dogs without access to food or water,' she said. Some owners refuse to spay or neuter their pets specifically because they rely on selling puppies as income, contributing to what volunteers describe as an uncontrolled breeding cycle inside one of the city's most densely homeless areas.

A Federal Complaint and the City's Non-Response

In May 2026, the legal nonprofit Advancing Law for Animals filed a formal letter to federal officials on behalf of Starts With One Today, calling for immediate intervention. The letter, also sent to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, alleged mutilation, illegal breeding, fentanyl administration and the use of dogs in what it described as a trafficking pipeline feeding underground animal fighting in Las Vegas, the purebred dog market and street-level drug sales.

The complaint stated that Starts With One Today had 'documented dogs with their eyes and genitals glued together, broken bones, mutilated paws and overdosed on drugs.' Attorney Vanessa Shakib, who authored the letter, told City News Service that her client has repeatedly contacted the LAPD, Los Angeles Animal Services, Mayor Bass and Councillor Ysabel Jurado — and received little to no follow-through from any of them.

'The last time my client called LAPD to report animal neglect, four officers arrived, each with a different understanding of Mayor Bass' animal task force, and ultimately took no action,' Shakib told CNS. She also noted that Tuccio's petition, which gathered tens of thousands of signatures demanding a meeting with the mayor, was ignored entirely. Bass's office disputed this account, stating through a spokesman that 'complaints can be filed by anyone, regardless of their validity.' Los Angeles City Councillor Ysabel Jurado's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from KTLA.

In a February 2026 letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, PETA separately warned that the task force Bass had announced appeared to be disbanded almost immediately after a single bust in December 2025, with officers recorded stating the programme had ended 'after a couple of trainings.' PETA also flagged that Los Angeles has a municipal rule barring dog breeding when city shelters exceed 75% capacity — a threshold the organisation said had been surpassed for years while breeding on Skid Row continued uninterrupted, as IBTimes UK reported.

The dogs of Skid Row have no voice, no vote and no mayoral office to call — and the city's own record suggests that, so far, neither has made a difference.