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 animalabusein 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.
Victoriah Parker, co-founder of the nonprofitStarts With One Today, has worked with dogs on Skid Row for eight years. Speaking toCBS 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 toFox 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.
Homeless people are using dogs to test drugs for them on Skid Row in Los Angeles, California.Non-profit group Starts With One Today says dogs are being abused, thrown away, sold for drugs, neglected, and fed drugs to make sure there is no fentanyl.Animal advocates are…pic.twitter.com/zUy1ypXEIs
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 byMostly 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.
Parker toldKTLAthat 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.'
Source: International Business Times UK
