It’s heartbreaking and infuriating that it had to come to this. A giant billboard about animal cruelty when it could have ended years ago.
The tortured dog on the billboard was never removed from her abuser on Skid Row.
For THREE YEARS, Karen Bass chose to ignore our petition, our demand letter requesting a face-to-face meeting, and the pleas from members of the public and people both inside and outside the animal welfare community.
Her LA Animal Services GM, Staycee Dains, refused SUFP’s offer to fully fund the spays and neuters of 60 pit bull-type dogs on Skid Row, as well as our resources and proposed plan for removing abused dogs — a plan we arranged with Humane World For Animals.
Karen Bass then went on the news and stated, “the animals are not neglected,” while news outlets in Los Angeles and across the country were reporting on the horrors animals were enduring daily.
Karen Bass continues to launch new “programs” and issue press releases while, in our view, meaningful change has not followed. Animals continue to suffer, and animals continue to be killed in shelters that she and Best Friends Animal Society have the audacity to call “No Kill.”
Karen Bass has shown she will meet with and visit Skid Row alongside those who don’t hold her accountable and who provide the optics she needs to appear as though she cares — while the cruelty and suffering never ends.
The “ignore” tactic didn’t make us go away.
It resulted in a lawsuit.
The Stand Up For Pits Foundation has been treated like a nuisance — as though if we were ignored long enough, we would eventually disappear. After the lawsuit was filed, they sought to have claims dismissed.
Karen Bass should have listened three years ago. She should have met with us, took responsibility, accepted available resources and taken meaningful action for the animals.
What we have seen and now the world has seen happening to animals in Los Angeles is unforgivable.
In a city this size, with this much money, power, influence and access to resources, there is no excuse for the horrors animals have faced and continue to face.
The animals deserve to be protected on the streets and in shelters.
