In Los Angeles’ mayoral race and related city attorney contest, animal welfare has become a flashpoint—driven by viral claims about Skid Row, promises to fix shelter systems, and allegations that enforcement and funding have lagged.
On a weekend before the primary. Spencer Pratt looked into a camera and laid out the kind of promise that travels fast in Los Angeles politics: he didn’t want endorsements “except for the moms and animal lovers in L.A.” He said it on the Fox News comedy show “Gutfeld!”—and he made animal welfare the centerpiece of his mayoral run. plastering billboard space around town with himself surrounded by dogs and posting online about abuse in the city’s shelters.
Pratt’s campaign also leaned into a particular set of accusations—spreading through a nearly 10-minute video in which he repeated social media claims that dogs on Skid Row are used to test drugs and bred for drug money, then left to languish in dirty, overcrowded shelters.
But the campaign conversation has been more contested than it has been unified. Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Andrew Mathes. officer-in-charge of the Central Gang Impact Team that works in the Skid Row area. said social media descriptions of Skid Row dogs being used for fights and to test drugs often lack credible evidence and actionable information.
That clash—between what circulates online and what officials say can be verified—has become the driver of an unusually raw political debate: who gets to define animal abuse in a city where rescues, shelters, and enforcement all collide.
City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who will be in the Nov. 3 runoff against Mayor Karen Bass, framed her pitch around the shelter system rather than specific viral claims. Raman said it is in a state of crisis, blaming a “broken spay/neuter program” among other factors. Her opponent in the larger political environment. Bass. has faced sustained criticism from animal advocates—many of them pointing to chronic underfunding of the Animal Services department. including the spay and neuter fund.
Raman’s opponent, Bass, pushed back by emphasizing action she says she took after taking office in 2022. Her campaign spokesperson. Alex Stack. said Bass helped launch spay-and-neuter clinic pop-ups for Skid Row and started an initiative to train 100 LAPD officers to identify and handle cases of animal cruelty. Mathes said the initiative—launched last November—has saved 45 dogs and led to the filing of six felony cases of animal cruelty and neglect.
Stack also argued that social media can be both fuel and distraction. “Social media makes it much easier to spread outrage and then to offer real solutions to real problems. ” Stack said in a statement. Bass has pledged that L.A. shelters would be “a national model for animal welfare” after she took office. and she later brought in a new general manager. Staycee Dains. But Dains lasted only a year; she told The Times that insurmountable red tape blocked her from making changes.
More recently, Bass hired a new general manager for Animal Services, Gabrielle Amster, and helped organize a $14-million grant to city shelters in partnership with Best Friends Animal Society and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Still, critics say funding and enforcement gaps are the heart of the matter. The nonprofit Stand Up For Pits sued the city and Bass last year. arguing in a May 2026 amended complaint that officials have failed to enforce animal abuse laws on city streets and allow shelter pets to live in deplorable conditions.
The debate over facts isn’t limited to Bass and Raman. City politics around animal welfare have extended to the city attorney’s race as well.
Deputy District Attorney John McKinney published a 10-step plan to support animal welfare as part of his campaign for city attorney. He finished in second place in the primary and will be in the runoff against Marissa Roy. a democratic socialist who works as a deputy state attorney general. McKinney said. “Politicians are understanding that this is a significant group of people who can move the needle in races. especially close races.”.
Another mayoral contender, Dylan Kendall—a longtime cat rescuer and advocate—made animal welfare a centerpiece in her unsuccessful bid against Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez.
Even within the animal rights movement. there is a split between skepticism about viral claims and gratitude for the attention those claims can generate. Liv Sigel. founder of the Underdog Community Project. said some activists credit viral social media posts depicting animal abuse for forcing the issue into public view. “When they finally go viral online, that’s when the public wants to get involved. That’s when political candidates can definitely get involved,” Sigel said.
Paul Koretz, who championed animal rights during his years on the City Council, criticized Pratt’s approach directly. He and others say the bigger problem on Skid Row is illegal breeding. which can lead to underfed and neglected animals that end up in shelters or dead on the streets. Koretz said Pratt’s claims were a “dramatic fabrication” of the actual problems on Skid Row, aimed at winning votes.
In the middle of all this is the people who live the issue day to day. Joey Tuccio. a Skid Row dog rescuer. said he supported Pratt because he was the first mayoral candidate to bring serious attention to the issue. Tuccio said he has criticized both Bass and Raman for what he called their negligence to animals’ conditions on city streets.
Tuccio described a pattern of delayed response from authorities: “We have called the police so many times about dogs being beat, dogs being neglected, dogs dying on the street,” Tuccio said. “And nine times out of 10 they do not show up.”
Tuccio said he invited both candidates to walk Skid Row with him for a first-hand look at the problems he sees. So far, he said, he is waiting for a response.
The sequence is clear in how these campaigns have chosen to fight: Pratt elevated the issue through viral-style assertions and street-level spectacle. while Bass and Raman emphasize programs. training. and administrative changes—each side pointing to different proof of what is working and what is failing. And on Skid Row. where urgency is measured in days and sometimes hours. that gap between public outrage and on-the-ground intervention has become part of the story itself.
Raman. when asked on the campaign trail. said she would increase funding to Animal Services if elected mayor. install new leadership in tune with local activists. and expand spay-and-neuter programs to save money in the long run. decreasing the amount of liability payouts coming from the department. “This is an issue I think matters to a lot of people,” Raman said at the campaign event.
Los Angeles politics animal welfare Skid Row Spencer Pratt Nithya Raman Karen Bass Animal Services spay and neuter LAPD John McKinney Marissa Roy