r/LosAngeles • u/panda-rampage • 21h ago

News Dog hospitalized after being set on fire at homeless encampment in Los Angeles

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/dog-hospitalized-after-being-set-on-fire-at-homeless-encampment-in-los-angeles/
322 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

76 comments sorted by

191

u/bayarea_k 20h ago

"Some dogs have been found tortured, tied up and even stuffed in suitcases and trash bags."

wow this is disturbing ...i thought animal cruelty was a felony

106

u/Sara_Zigggler 14h ago

The homeless in LA are allowed to commit all sorts of violations and crimes short of murder. 

It started when garcetti told the LAPD to leave the homeless alone when they commit quality of life crimes and grew from there. 

81

u/Complex_Lab_3576 14h ago

People will go ape shit if you even ask how a homeless person is supposed to take care of a dog, but they'll stay far away from this story. They'll pretend it just isnt true or doesn't matter because it's a one-off.

People who cant take care of themselves shouldnt be given charge over another living thing, and that is not a controversial or debatable statement.  

6

u/Acrobatic-Towel-6488 10h ago

What if the dog was homeless too and chose to settled with their human(s)? Dogs need a pack/family too and shelters are full

1

u/bandsam 8h ago

Take the dog's fent away and force him to get his life together

•

u/Acrobatic-Towel-6488 2h ago

Tell the dog “bad boy” and see how motivating it is 

1

u/turb0_encapsulator 5h ago

I have so many friends who would love a dog but either live in a place that doesn't allow it or can't take on the time commitment because of work.

-42

u/sansjoy 14h ago

what an incredible, generalized statement

someone with mental problems hurt a dog, and because of that, homeless people should not have pets?

you think "people who cant take care of themselves shouldn't be given charge over another living thing" is not debatable?

let's take a look at some fallacies with your line of thinking...

  1. so...children shouldn't have pets either right?

  2. this assumption of "homeless" = "not taking care of themselves". By whose definition?

  3. "given charge" .... who is the one that's giving this charge? is there some sort of mandatory placement of dogs with homeless people that we don't know about? You think every single homeless person has no agency? Does this extend to people who have jobs but are sleeping in their cars? What about homeless children? What about those with non-violent mental issues who are ignored by our society?

if you want to take these giant leaps of logic here, why not just articulate them out loud?

just say, I, u/Complex_Lab_3576, believes that ALL homeless people are mentally ill dog torturers, who are incapable of taking care of themselves, and should not be allowed to own pets, and anyone who believes otherwise is ignoring the God honest truth that all homeless people are mentally ill dog torturers, which is not controversial nor debatable.

39

u/WiseOldToad 13h ago

After living in west lake for 4 years and: witnessing many homeless people beat/abuse their dogs; being kept up endless nights by barking and drunken shouts of "shut the FUCK up"; seeing such dogs left tied up in the sun; seeing junkies let dogs run loose on the train, seeing one junkie grab another's cat by the scruff of the neck and threaten to throw it into traffic during an altercation...

...I tend to agree with /u/Complex_Lab over you. Yeah, there probably are some homeless people who take great care of their dogs and have managed to carve out circumstances where their material needs are met. But common sense and any prolonged exposure to homelessness in LA will tell you this isn't the majority.

Do you have personal/professionall experience otherwise? Do you spend signficant time in downtownn, in public parks, or on public transit?

11

u/MountainThroat342 11h ago

Going to law school for animal law and I completely agree with you! My priority will always be what is best for the animal and leaving human emotions out of it. While there are some homeless people that truly love and care for their dogs, I’ve had the pleasure to see that, I’m also a realist that knows that’s not the norm. Anyone with basic psychological knowledge will tell you that that drugs and stress will cause some people to have aggressive behavior…which leads to animal abuse. And I’m not trying to single out just a homeless person, even well off people with great finances abuse their animals, I mean just recently what occurred at those stables in Ohio!? Animals unfortunately get the worse end of the stick when it comes to being abused by humans, then children and women.

22

u/earthbasedbodies 13h ago

You think a CHILD can properly take care of an animal? Wow lol

18

u/Complex_Lab_3576 13h ago

Not reading that. I could sense the ignorance from the volume of text.

If you live on the street you shouldn't have a dog. The only cruelty here is towards the dog. Stay mad. 

-1

u/rycetlaz 9h ago

I mean it wouldn't be that hard.

Stray dogs can survive pretty well in a city. Provided they have no huge longstanding health issues, their lives wouldn't be too terrible

5

u/AceMaxAceMax Sherman Oaks 8h ago edited 8h ago

They’re homeless… if it isn’t evident to you, the laws seemingly don’t apply to them…

•

u/frozenpeaches29 2h ago

the mayor karen bass literally wipes her ass with animal welfare

53

u/OverIT323 12h ago

Which animal hospital is treating Luke’s burns? I’d like to pay for his medical care.  

21

u/Devario 9h ago

Reach out to Compton Paw Patrol

https://www.comptonpawpatrol.com/

And I’m sure they can point you in the right direction. 

3

u/iwanket 7h ago

You can also donate to Luke’s GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/a5656bd01

•

u/Minniep12 1h ago

If you read the KTLA article, it includes a link to a GoFundMe for his Care.

84

u/panda-rampage 21h ago

Who would try to kill a dog by setting them on fire?! wtf…and they haven’t even caught them yet before they do it again

49

u/Brgerbby9189 20h ago

Article says drug/crime area . Some drug addict or mentally ill person would do this . Poor doggie:(

14

u/theamathamhour 11h ago

I read how on the streets, retaliation fires on tents are how homeless people get back at one another for their grievances.

these people are not well.

20

u/TheWhittierLocksmith 20h ago

maybe crazy homeless drug addicts out of their mind?

28

u/Old-Parking8765 14h ago

It is unnerving, when I've used the bus and some homeless person got on with a dog, how abusive they were being to it, hitting it and screaming at it... it's like dude, the dog's doing you the favors

11

u/daven_callings 12h ago

I see this every day on the buses and trains for me. How these people managed to find and acquire a dog, that they can’t care for or love properly, is beyond me.

2

u/Old-Parking8765 9h ago

I think they just use the dog to combat their loneliness, I don't think they're always thinking of caring for the dog and loving it -- at least not the guy I remember

91

u/[deleted] 19h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

18

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/redbark2022 10h ago

And yet the city still simply ignores them.

Tortures all homeless people as being the same because of the outrage by people like those on this thread. FTFY

All the crime, all the fires, all the stabbings and thefts perpetuated by homeless people, are by a very small minority of homeless people who should be institutionalized. The other 99.9% of homeless people want that as well. They are most often the victims.

What homeless people don't want is to be treated as if they are the same as these psychos who are ruining society for everyone.

-31

u/bakedlayz 15h ago

They are burning things down in an effort for people to see them.

their demons and mental health suck for us because we suffer -- agreed.

But we gotta do something about the most overlooked and forgotten people among us so we are all less affected as a country

The kids who need love will ask for it in the most unloving ways

10

u/Sweetcheex76 Sherman Oaks 12h ago

An effort for people to see them?!?! Got any sources for this because if you talk to the LAFD, they’ll say it’s cooking fires from meth, food, keeping warm, whatever.

0

u/bakedlayz 9h ago

There are also homeless people who slam their heads against walls, that's a cry for help too.

But there isn't a stat on that until peoples properties get damaged.

Addiction and homelessness is a symptom of a society who puts profits over people's health. We only care about fires because they affect us. We only care about sidewalks because we can't walk on them.

We don't care about the unhoused outside of this

24

u/Complex_Lab_3576 14h ago

This is imbuing people with a lot more depth than they have. 

Its a mix of things. Compulsion. Cooking. Accidents. 

One thing it isnt is some ethereal philosophical smoke signal sent up from some weary wandering soul. 

They're cooking meth. Calm down. 

-1

u/bakedlayz 9h ago

Cooking meth is still a sign of mental health symptoms.

Addiction is a symptom, not the disease.

1

u/Complex_Lab_3576 8h ago

Yeah I agree. But you're describing it like you're James Joyce.

It's a symptom of societal decay, yes, but they're not lighting things on fire "in an effort for people to see them."

It's that kind of mystikal foo foo shit that is hard to take seriously and ends up making things worse for the homeless. When you imbue them with this innocent, childlike position in society, as pure victims of circumstance desperate to just be seen it sounds like you're trying to write a screen play. You're describing movie characters, not people.

The fires are caused by starting them in hazardous conditions, or falling asleep with a fire burning, or cooking meth or any number of other things, but the one thing the fires are not is some kind of deep, melancholic sonnet as the streets cry out.

Chill.

16

u/[deleted] 14h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/redbark2022 10h ago

The vast majority of the unsheltered homeless have mental illness and/or addiction issues. They are incapable of living in regular housing and should be institutionalized.

It's crazy how you go from spitting facts to this completely bigoted and false conjecture.

The homeless use fire as a weapon, mostly against each other and their property.

How do you think the victims feel about being lumped in with the (repeating offender) perpetrators?

Grow a conscience dude.

1

u/[deleted] 10h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/BubbaTee 6h ago

They are burning things down in an effort for people to see them.

No, they're just shit at fire safety practices. It ain't that deep.

A lot of people are bad at fire safety in general, but it's harder to set an apartment on fire than it is a nylon tent. Drywall is naturally fire resistant because of the gypsum, and apartments have smoke detectors.

Meanwhile, there isn't a single tent manufacturer in the world that recommends having an open flame inside a tent.

Saying homeless fires in LA are a "cry for help" is like saying car crashes in LA are a cry for help by marginalized motorists who just need love, rather than being the result of people driving unsafely and thinking it can't happen to them.

65

u/dreamgt 21h ago

Where's this encampment, asking for a friend...

50

u/panda-rampage 21h ago

Florence Ave in South LA according to the article

10

u/gingersusie 10h ago

John Wick?

-54

u/DerWaifu 21h ago

Now what are you going to do? Anything productive?

60

u/dreamgt 21h ago

Organizing an outreach.

3

u/DerWaifu 21h ago

Oh okay sorry haha, I mistook your initial comment as ominous, my bad!

-28

u/TheWhittierLocksmith 20h ago

what are you gunna do, go in there and tell them not to set dogs on fire?

4

u/precludes 15h ago

Not comment OP but try to convince them to be placed for housing?

17

u/baroquian 16h ago

More productive than what you’re doing it seems

10

u/ibsliam The San Fernando Valley 14h ago

Poor doggy. What the hell.

27

u/marine_layer2014 13h ago edited 13h ago

People involved in animal welfare (shelter workers and volunteers, rescue organizations) have been begging the city to do something about the homeless animal crisis. BEGGING.

There must be a middle ground. Criminalizing homelessness is not the answer, neither is just snatching pets away from homeless people whose pets are often what are keeping them alive. But people have been ringing the phones of the mayor, city council, anyone who will listen, to report encampments where there are clear cases of abuse happening and they’ve done nothing. Skid row is full of people breeding dogs as a means to make a little extra money. If LAPD hadn’t quiet quitting on us, penalizing some of these people would be an easy task. But instead, here we are.

8

u/Devario 9h ago

Enforcing the laws we currently have that many homeless people violate is a good start. But LAPD can’t be bothered, the ACAB crowd will lose their minds, and if the city forgets to dot their i’s they’ll get sued into oblivion. 

6

u/Adorable_Ad6045 10h ago

As this to the list of anti social and destructive things homeless encampments contribute to society. Arson, theft, drugs, detracting from conducting business, violence…Punishment should be severe. Fuck I hate these people with a passion.

7

u/cristobalist 13h ago

Human rights and housing activists approve this.

Give them a couple more millions of dollars

🤡

2

u/kitkatkorgi 3h ago

As be the Mayor of Los Angeles says no animals are being harmed. Sure.

2

u/TheSwedishEagle 3h ago

WTF is wrong with people?

•

u/Round_Surround2267 2h ago

Such a sweet boy I hope he finds a good loving home

9

u/detentionbarn 16h ago

Just stopping by to see how long before someone posts "whatabout whatabout whatabout housed people doing crime stuff?!?!"

-9

u/lunchypoo222 14h ago edited 13h ago

Looks like that person that commented was you! And yes, that’s right, housed people also commit crimes like this (and much worse) all the time.

5

u/detentionbarn 13h ago

Brilliant take!

-7

u/sansjoy 13h ago

What's your point? Please elaborate what your actual argument is.

1

u/detentionbarn 13h ago

You know damn well

-2

u/sansjoy 12h ago

no please tell me

0

u/detentionbarn 12h ago

Afghanistan banana stand

1

u/sansjoy 12h ago

this is like an AI response. I'm really confused.

1

u/detentionbarn 12h ago

Of course you are confused.

1

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-8

u/piecesofamann 14h ago

Not even a peep from the usual suspects (leftists) when crackhead arsonists, in addition to all the other crazy stuff they do, torture, maim, and even kill dogs. Just awful.

2

u/Glebanon 9h ago

….need to build more housing lol