The FBI is offering a $5,000 reward for information that helps prosecute animal abuse in Los Angeles, a move aimed squarely at abuses reported in and around Skid Row. The new tipline is part of a federal push to identify violators of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, known as the PACT Act, which became law in 2019.
Officials are urging Angelenos to send in tips that can help lead to prosecution under the federal law. The Justice Department said helpful submissions should include photographs, videos, dates, times, locations and a description of the person responsible. Reports can be emailed to LA-AnimalCrimesTipline@ic.fbi.gov, and the messages will be reviewed by the Animal Abuse Task Force for the Central District of California, which covers Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Skid Row has become closely associated with some of the city’s most disturbing animal abuse cases, according to advocates working on the problem. Joey Tuccio, a volunteer with Starts With One Today, told KTLA that his group hears repeated reports of people trying to trade dogs for drugs. He said calls come in every day from people describing dogs that are dying on the streets.
Tuccio also described one case in which rescuers treated a dog with serious injuries to one eye and a leg. An advocate said the dog’s owner had been trying to dissect the animal’s leg with tweezers while under the influence of drugs. The reports have fueled anger among rescue workers and animal-welfare advocates who say the situation has grown more severe in one of Los Angeles’ most troubled neighborhoods.
The federal law at the center of the effort was written to criminalize extreme cruelty, including so-called animal crushing videos. The Department of Justice described that practice in a 2015 case as a fetish in which women were filmed or photographed mutilating small animals for sexual gratification. Federal authorities say the PACT Act is meant to reach that kind of conduct as well as other severe forms of abuse.
