Pitbulls plagued by flies and tied up and left without water, puppies sold for drug money and kittens stuffed into plastic bags and hung around their owners’ necks: this is the cruel reality for animals left to languish on LA’s notorious Skid Row.

And it's mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt who has somehow become the champion of these suffering and abused animals who are being forced to live on the streets with their homeless owners - or no caretaker at all.

'There’s a reason “dog” is just “God” backwards. They share an unconditional love for mankind," he said in a lengthy social media video over the weekend as he laid out a five-step plan to end the animal abuse currently plaguing the City of Angels. 

'Both Nithya [Raman] and Karen Bass ignore these poor animals being killed on Skid Row and in their city shelters. They don’t care. I will put an end to this horror,' he added as he ripped his two rivals.  

While the homelessness crisis in California’s biggest city has become a flashpoint in this year’s mayoral election, the epidemic of animals brutalized in homeless encampments has largely been ignored – until now.

Last week, insurgent mayoral hopeful Pratt, 42, posted a nearly 10 minute clip railing against the sordid conditions endured by animals on Skid Row – catapulting an issue that has 99 per cent support among voters to the top of the agenda in the race.

But while his rivals Bass and Raman have claimed the problem is overblown, the Daily Mail can reveal that in reality, it is widespread and the sheer cruelty staggering.

On a visit to Skid Row on the day before the election, the Daily Mail witnessed dogs tied up in the street in the burning sun with no food or water, while a kitten was stuffed into a plastic bag while the drug-addled owner muttered about sacrificing the animal.

Pug puppies – whose mother and a trio of siblings had been killed by passing cars – were being offered up for sale for $500 and held in a cramped crate.

Meanwhile, others are injected with drugs – a test to see how pure the substance is that routinely leads to canine overdoses.

Some are burned and beaten by owners high on illicit narcotics.

Bass and the LA City Council are even being sued over the issue with animal rights advocates saying she has consistently refused to enforce abuse laws and remove the street dogs from their violent owners.

‘Laws are in place for a reason,’ Rebecca Corry, whose charity Stand Up For Pitbulls is part of the abuse lawsuit against Bass, told the Daily Mail.

‘They're there to protect humans and animals and it's part of their job. That's what they get paid for.’

Corry, whose work on Skid Row began in 2023 when she was sent a video of scores of dogs lying in the sun with no food or water, said she had reached out to officials over the issue repeatedly – only to be knocked back.

‘I just started reaching out to absolutely everyone and going, "Are you kidding? Are you kidding? Do you know that this is going on? Are you aware this is going on?”,' she said. 

‘And what I found was that Mayor Karen Bass, along with all of the agencies who are supposed to be protecting the animals and enforcing the laws, refuse.

‘It's that simple, they just refuse.’

Corry has no time for Bass or Raman who even walked out on a public meeting where she was making the case for ending animal abuse on the streets of LA.

The same goes for Joey Tuccio, a New York native who now lives in LA and is a volunteer with Starts With One Today – a charity that rescues dogs brutalized on Skid Row.

Tuccio, who gave the Daily Mail a tour of the area along with rescue bosses Ashlee Powers of Akira Animal Rescue and Shira Scott of Astrof, said he has witnessed vile abuse and has also been repeatedly threatened while trying to help the animals.

‘I would say 90 per cent of the issue is that [the dogs are] being illegally bred and abused,’ he told the Daily Mail.

‘I would say a lot of the people there are severe drug addicts and they don't have the capacity to take care of themselves, let alone a dog - or sometimes they have five to eight dogs.

‘We've rescued dogs that were overdosing on drugs. We've rescued dogs that were hit by cars, rescued dogs whose limbs were falling off, their eyes were glued shut, their privates were glued shut. I mean, literally everything.

‘We've probably rescued over a hundred dogs on Skid Row, just on Skid Row.’

Pratt, for his part, has vowed to create an animal welfare task force within the LAPD to zero in specifically on Skid Row.   

'On Skid Row, addicts are torturing dogs to death, stuffing them in trash bags and lighting them on fire, testing their drugs on them until they overdose and die,' he said in his campaign video. 

'The abuse and neglect is so horrific it's overwhelming and it must stop. It breaks my heart to see this horror on our streets.'

Some of the residents appeared to genuinely love their dogs, despite the appalling living conditions, with many gladly accepting water and treats for their dogs handed to them by Tuccio, Scott and Powers.

One, who went by the name of Chico, happily chatted about his ultra friendly pitbull while claiming to have hand grenades for sale. Tuccio, however, pointed out that he had moved into a tent donated for the animal last week while leaving it outside to swelter in the sunshine.

Another homeless lady named Cricket also promised to help find out where a small white dog seen in the area recently had been taken.

But others use the animals as a shortcut to drug money or as an outlet for their frustrations, with Tuccio telling the Daily Mail of a pair of characters named Monster and Marquise.

Monster, who has already had dogs taken away from him, is infamous – even by Skid Row standards – for his cruel treatment of any canine unfortunate enough to fall into his hands.

Marquise, meanwhile, is a convicted murderer released after 15 years and who routinely breeds puppies for drug cash.

'Too many people, even in Los Angeles, don't know what's going on in LA because Karen Bass and her minions have done such a tremendous job hiding this from the public,' Tuccio said.

‘We've talked to police people there that said direct from current administration that they're not allowed to enforce laws on Skid Row, that it's insensitive, that it's culturally insensitive to enforce breeding laws.

‘So, I've heard that many times from police, from LA supervisors, from everybody. We're just kind of battling a losing fight because everybody's too scared to enforce laws.’ 

Tuccio has also shown Pratt around the area after meeting him following an appearance on his podcast and was also featured on the animal abuse campaign the would-be mayor released last week.

‘We need everybody to know because when there's a crisis and everybody knows, people step up and they help and they want to help and they want to get involved,' he said. 

‘Right now, it's so polarizing because a lot of people don't know. Unfortunately, the thing I'm now seeing, which is disgusting, is that some people now don't even want to help because they're like, “oh, Spencer is helping and he's lying”.

‘And I'm like, Spencer's the only person who's ever come with us [to Skid Row]. He's the only person who's talking about it. But they're making it so political.'

At San Julian Park, a small patch of green space that has been turned into a drug den and has also been the scene of shootouts, more animals could be seen – among them a colony of cats.

LA City employee Lisa Ornelos, who oversees the park, said it has become increasingly dangerous and has adopted some of the animals herself.

She showed off expensive toilets installed in the park by the city, which have since been trashed by drug addicts who use them as a private place to shoot up and have sex.

And the Daily Mail also saw her trying to save a kitten being tossed about by a drug addict but to no avail.

‘I understand they have addictions,’ Ornelos told the Daily Mail. ‘I was an addict until, thank God, I got clean.

‘Giving out needles won’t fix this problem. They need rehab and real help.’

For Powers, whose organization is currently housing dogs rescued from Skid Row, no dogs should be left on the street with addicts.

‘They say they love them but if they really loved them, they’d want them to be in a safe place, not here,’ she said.

‘There’s no reason why any dog should ever be here at all.’

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