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Joey Tuccio
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Podcast Co-host 1
Oh no, that's all God's time.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Welcome back to your favorite podcast series in the whole world, the Fame Game. Joined with me is my global pop superstar, Heidi Montag. If you're not already an owner of her album, you're missing out. Heidi Wood. We have a big time guest, a hero, in Los Angeles right now. I only know who he is because I continually see his videos fighting for the lives of dogs. I haven't seen any cats, but I don't know, he's probably saving cats also. For the cat people. Joey, thank you for. You saw pigeons.
Podcast Co-host 1
Pigeons, right.
Joey Tuccio
Yeah, we're. There's a case with pigeons that I'm learning about.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Yeah, so pigeons too. So, Joey, honestly, the amount of videos I've watched of you putting yourself in settings that our own mayor wouldn't go with her security detail and all the like, you go into dangerous environments, obviously risking your life to save these dogs or do your best to save them. So please just break it all down for us. You can go on a. This is. We got you here to just get him, Joey. Get him.
Joey Tuccio
Well, let me start by sucking up a Little bit. There are many times where I feel overwhelmed and I don't want to do it anymore, and I'm just over it, defeated. Then I see what you guys are doing. I'm like, damn, it's amazing. So you guys keep me going, and I thank you both for what you guys are doing. I mean, it's wild. So, yeah, so I've been doing rescue for about eight years. I've been. It's not my day job. I don't get paid to do it. And I've been going to skid row for about three years. And since I started eight years ago, the crisis has only gotten worse. And to your point, me and every rescuer have seen things that are just haunting, terrifying things that keep you up at night. But we have to keep going because otherwise, if we don't do it, they won't do it. So. And it's. It's bad. I mean, the first time I went to skid row, I went because somebody said there's. There's an incident on skid Row. And by the way, before I go on, I do want to say this. I've been doing this very heavily for three years. I've held back a lot of names. I've been very kind of, like, you know, aware that I just don't want to, like, stir the pot. That changes. Today, I am going to name every single, single name, every single one, because it's not getting better. And I've tried to be nice. So every name will be said this for the first time ever. So, yeah, so when I went to skid row for the first time, and I've never said this name before, there's a guy there named Vamp. He's a horrible, horrible human being. What I saw were down a street called San Julian, lines of pit bulls in cages, no food, no water, living in feces in the summer, no shade. This one was a dog fighter, dog fighting dog. This one was used for breeding. And at the end was a dog named Brave. So we went and we gave water, we gave food. This is before we kind of really publicized skid row. So they were very open about us going. So we went and we gave food, we gave water, and then we walked around Skid Row, and all you see is horror. You see dogs being bred, dogs being beat, dogs being neglected. The dog, Brave, that we eventually end up saving because Vamp, he was hitting Vamp, hitting Brave over the head with a Hennessy bottle over and over again because he wanted Brave to get mad so he could use him for fighting. Brave did not get mad. So he discarded him on the street. And this is in the summer. It's about 90 degrees outside. We got a call that Brave was walking around frothing at the mouth because he was so hot. So we ended up saving him. And this is one of many heartbreaking stories. When we dropped him off at my friend's house, I went and I reached in my pocket to take out my phone so I could take a video of Brave. When I reached in my pocket, Brave pancaked on the floor. He was terrified about what I was taking out of my pocket. I. And at that moment, I was like, oh, no, it's on. We have to. We have to do it. And I've been dedicating three years of my life to doing it.
Podcast Co-host 1
How did you get started? How did you get involved in that? Did you just always love dogs? And how did that happen?
Joey Tuccio
Yeah, so I. I also. I have to get over the initial shock that Heidi just talked to me. Sorry to get over that initial shock. Okay, now moving on from that. Okay, so I went to a dog shelter about eight years ago, and just to drop off blankets, I was very ignorant. I didn't know even know what a shelter was. I thought there'd be, like, a Starbucks in the back. I was, you know, didn't know. So I went. And then I said, can I just go in the back? And this was North Central Animal Shelter. And I went in the back, and it just destroyed me. And I saw, you know, dogs just staring at me. And then I saw. I met my first dog. I adopted Piper. And I just posted about this yesterday. Actually, the thing that I think about every single day, multiple times, is not Piper that I rescued and I've kept for 10 years until she passed. Was the dog next to Piper a dog named Blue? And I remember that Blue was licking, staring at me, licking at the cage over and over again, trying to make the cage disappear. And I left, and I looked back, and I saw Blue for the last time. And, I mean, I'm so grateful I had my dog, but I'm like, I don't know what happened to Blue. He might be dead. He might have gotten in the wrong hands, but. So that's what every rescuer feels when we go into a shelter or on the streets is Sophie's Choice. We pick a dog. Sometimes it's just this, and then we leave, and we don't know what happens to the other dogs, or sometimes we do, and it's more heartbreaking. So, yeah, that's how I started. It's sad. It's gonna be a lot of sadness. But, yeah, it's. It's tough. So, you know, in the past three years, we've been with. The rescue starts with one today. And they've been every year for eight years. Been going every Sunday and giving food and clothing and supplies to hundreds of homeless people and dogs on skid row. And I started about three years ago, kind of shepherding the. The dog side of things. And since we started, let's get into it, we've been trying to get Karen Bass's attention for years. We've done protests. We started a petition with another rescue group. Amazing rescue group, stand up for pits. Got over 30,000 signatures in a very short amount of time. We went to skid row. We went to city hall. We tried to get their attention. There was a guy who used to oversee skid row named Kevin De Leon. When I said his name, he walked out of city hall. He walked out. He just left. So we have tried. We've done protests in front of Karen Bass house. We've tried everything and nothing. Absolute silence. Not even. Not even a post acknowledging the animal crisis. In fact, earlier this year, only maybe a few months ago, at this point, she went on ABC and she had the balls to say, the animals on skid row are not neglected. The animals on skid row are not neglected. And I. And every rescue group just froze. And we're like, that's. This is what we're fighting against. We're fighting against somebody who says this. And people who don't know about skid row or don't know about the animal crisis, they'll see this and be like, oh, it's fine. What are these crazy animal people talking about? And at that point, it's just kind of added more fuel to cutting to last week, where she has now created a task force. More on that in a second. Because there's too much neglect on skid row. So this is after us. And stand up for PITS filing a legal thing against Karen Bass to get her attention. Us screaming, us doing news segments. People like you guys sharing these posts like it's. So finally, she did it. And this task force is a disaster. Recently. Actually, I think it was two days ago. There's a video circulating where these two homeless people had this beautiful dog. Kind of looks like your amazing dog Loki.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Yeah, call him, everyone.
Joey Tuccio
Okay. What's this?
Podcast Co-host 1
Yoki.
Joey Tuccio
Yoki. Yoki.
Eric Voss
Sorry.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Loki's cool.
Joey Tuccio
He looks like a Loki that. They were beating this dog. It's on video, beating this dog. So the These rescuers who are so brave, they went in the middle of the night. The police came. This is, this is Karen Bass's task force, by the way. They went to the people. There's a video of this beating this dog. And the police officer went to the rescuers and said, okay, he'll give you the dog for $200. I'm like, this is the task force. The task force is embracing giving these people money. And they did. They gave him $200 to get the dog. And the police were right there. And the police said, okay, give him $200, he'll give you the dog.
Podcast Co-host 1
It's just enabling them. They're gonna keep doing that.
Joey Tuccio
Yep.
Podcast Co-host 1
That's. That's horrific.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
What I don't understand is before the Palisades burned down, if my neighbor was on video beating a dog, they would get arrested. That's the great. Like if you're a tax paying person right now we go to Brentwood Country Mart and somebody hits a dog with a pole or whatever and videos that person is getting arrested. I mean, I would think, I guess maybe not.
Joey Tuccio
I mean, yeah, I would. If I was hitting my dog, I would get in trouble. So it's so on skid row, specifically, the, the police and Ellie and the animal services are told that the people on skid row, they play by a different set of rules, that they don't have to follow the rules. And there's a few reasons for that. The reasons that don't make sense is one, if you are living on skid row and you're doing something illegal to a dog, you're given a citation. The problem is they don't have an address. So there is no way to issue a citation because there's no address. Even though if they're living there for years. So you get a piece of paper and it's not enforced because what's going to happen is gets more and more expensive, but they're not going to pay it and eventually it just goes away. Makes literally no sense. The other issue is these criminals, like vamp, like Howard, who is breeding dogs on skid row as well. On. Well, as well. He. They don't live on skid row. They do their business on skid row because they know they can get away with it. The police will go to vamp and say, do you live here? Yes, I live here. Okay. And then they'll just walk away. But he doesn't. He lives in Long beach. So he does his business there because he'd get away with it. And so many criminals every street on skid row has a drug dealer. Every street on skid row has people watching that. People like me. Don't, you know, take somebody's dog. There's also, let's start naming names. An organization called LA Can. LA Can. This is what the police has told me is that whenever we try to get a dog removed, LA can goes to the police and says, if you have this dog removed, we will sue the police. And that's how they make their money. They go around skid row, they give cards to homeless people and say, if the police are to take your dog, we will sue. And that's how they make their money. And now look, let me also say, say very. This is really serious, is that we're not saying that every homeless person should not have a dog. That's not what we're saying. If you have, if you're homeless and you have a dog, leave them alone. I get messages from people like, this homeless person has a dog. We have to get rid of the dogs. Like, let's not let them have a dog. Let them live. It's not, that's not the issue. The issue is animal abusers. And so we've been definitely kind of blocked from removing dogs or the police doing their job because organizations like LA can or are saying, if you do this, we will sue you. And so they don't because they're scared. So that's just one of a few organizations on skid row making hundreds, hundreds of millions of dollars off this. So of course they want the chaos to continue. That's their paycheck.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Oh my gosh.
Joey Tuccio
Yeah, it's, it's sad. I mean, there's, we've rescued dozens of dogs on skid row. I mean the, the cases range from dogs that are literally dying, dogs that are being bred. There was a dog that was thrown out of a two story building and the owners didn't get the leg fixed for months. So we ended up rescuing the dog. We've rescued dogs that are being punched. We rescued dogs that are just neglected, just left there. Nobody knows who the owner is. So a few months ago, there's the LA supervisor, Katherine Barger. By the way, I'm probably gonna say all these names wrong and I was going to, honestly, I was going to google how to say their names, but honestly, I don't care.
Nicole Phelps
Hi, I'm Nicole Phelps, global fashion news and features director at Vogue and co host of the Run through podcast. Each week on the show, our listeners get an all access pass in into the world of Vogue on Tuesdays, join me as I interview influential designers like Calvin Klein, Rachel Scott and Simone Belotti. On Thursdays, join Chloe Mel, head of editorial content at Vogue us and Choma Nadi, British Vogue's head of editorial content, as they explore fashion through the lens of culture with guests like Doja Cat and Margot Robbie. Listen and watch the run through with Vogue wherever you get your podcasts and Vogue's YouTube channel.
Eric Voss
Hi, I'm Eric Voss from New Rockstars and if you want to know what's coming up next from the mcu, you should listen to the Sneak Peek hosted by myself and Jessica Clemens. Sneak Peek is your one stop shop for keeping up with Kevin Feige and his brain trust of nerd producers. It's a weekly roundup of all the most important Marvel news so that you can start getting excited about the MCU's next big movie or series before there's even a trailer out. What should we expect now? Not just from this phase or saga, but the next one too. Part of the fun of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is being excited about the next chapter. And that excitement is exactly why we make Sneak Peek Listen for free on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Joey Tuccio
Yeah, no, I'm like, they've shown so much disrespect that I don't even care to say their names right or wrong.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
So. Yanis Quinones.
Joey Tuccio
Yeah. Okay. So, okay, we're going to really get into it. I'm excited. So the. So we, we walked around Skid Road. This isn't even her district, but we walked around on a Sunday and she was in tears and she was like, I can't believe this is happening. And this isn't her territory. Her district. This Hilda Solis's district. And never seen her there once. Never seen her post anything about Skid Row. And this is her district. So I, I have questions about what she's doing. We walked around. We did, we did the thing. She was very sad. You know, nothing really came from it, but she's the only person who's ever come to Skid Row and looked. So it's, it's mind boggling.
Podcast Co-host 1
Oh, no. That's all. So what is the protocol when you locate a dog or an animal and then you start negotiating between the owner or the person who has the dog? Does it escalate or sometimes do they just surrender the dog? What is that process like?
Joey Tuccio
Yeah, it's been everything to get the fuck away from me to taking out a knife to take this dog. I don't even Know, I don't even care about this dog. Give me $10, I'll give you this dog everything. There was one dog named Tuesday that I. We were walking around and this dog was just living in trash, just completely scarred, covered in mud, discarded, whatever. So I went to this guy and I said, okay, can I take this dog? He's like, it's not my dog. And if you don't take this dog, I'm gonna shoot the dog in the head. He took me by the neck and said, this, I wanna show you how I break dogs necks. And this was. This was, by the way, given to animal Control. Nothing was done.
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We.
Joey Tuccio
We were able to save the dog and stand up for Pits, found a home for it. But it ranges from everything from we don't even know how we got this dog, or go yourself, basically. And then sometimes when they say, go yourself and it's really bad, we'll say, well, actually go fuck yourself. And then we'll do what we have to do to get the dog. And there's little vigilante groups that are like, I'm a part. Like, I'm seeing that I love that are just like, no, let's get the fucking dog.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
I've seen some of those. I don't know, I don't want to. I've seen on TikTok, one group that just rolls up, grabs the dog. Mike, these are the best people ever. So I just. What I think is we had Robert Cabral on and he explained the shelter, the LA City shelter issue. I feel like they want to pretend this isn't happening because they know if they did actually do anything or try to stop us now they have to bring more dogs that they already are cutting the budgets and killing all these dogs. So Karen Bass and her team knows if they do protect the dogs on skid row, they got to bring them to the shelters. And they're already killing all the dogs in the shelters. So is there, you think there's a connection with the LA shelters knowingly, like telling them, don't bring us any of these dogs, let them die on those streets 1,000%.
Joey Tuccio
I mean, the problem is when we were trying to get Karen's attention, we were like, we don't want these dogs to go immediately to the shelter because the shelters are full. We want to create a communication between the LAPD Animal Control rescuers so we can take the dogs so they don't have to go to the shelters. Obviously, she didn't even acknowledge that we were saying that. She didn't listen. So all these dogs are going to the shelters. In fact, there was, like, the first bus that this task force did, which was not even necessarily a bus. They were looking for copper thieves and then stumbled upon these. These puppies being sold. These dogs, chains so tight, so tight. And they. They can't even move. So they remove the dogs. I'm like, first off, you should have done that anyway without this new task force being formed. But the dogs are at the shelter in evidence, and they could be there for months. They could be returned to the owners. And I told the shelter, my kid, well, can we do, like, can we take the dogs to be, like, in a home environment? And they. They don't answer. They say, no. And like, this is what we're trying to avoid. We want to. We have the resources. We could help. But they're not listening. They're just throwing dogs in shelters and they're trying to hide everything, sweep everything under the rug so they don't see what's going on in skid row.
Podcast Co-host 1
But when you guys take them, can't you just take them? Why do you have to bring them to the shelter?
Joey Tuccio
So when we take them, they go, right? They do not go to the shelter. But when the police stumble on things, then that's what their first thing they have to do.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
So saying if the police intervene with any of these situations, they're not even going to get rescued. They're going to go to shelters where they're probably going to get killed or now become evidence or go back to the people.
Podcast Co-host 1
So what do you go in a group of people? How are you managing your own safety? Because that definitely seems to be a concern.
Joey Tuccio
So I go with a group of people. I mean, sometimes I go by myself or just one other person. And it's. We've been doing it for so long, we know when it's like, okay, we're not going to get involved with this. Like, there's. And. And the people on skid road are getting kind of smart. So there's a couple of dogs we really want to get that are being abused. One was burnt. Half her body is burnt, literally burnt off. And she's being used for breeding repeatedly. We told animal services many times, this guy is evil. He killed a cat with his bare hands. He killed a dog. And he's beating this poor dog so much. First off, the dog's deaf and just beating this dog. And the dog can barely walk because he's beating this dog so much. And they don't do anything. In fact, this is where it gets so annoying is that they say, we need evidence. We need evidence that this dog is being beat. We need a video. So I'm like, okay, well, then two days ago, there's a video of this guy beating a dog. This is the evidence you need. So why are you saying, okay, give this guy 200 and we'll. We'll give you the dog. Like you said, you need evidence that this dog is being beat. A dog is being beat. Here's the evidence. So why do we need $200? It's insane. And it all goes back to Karen Bass. She does not enforce the laws. She does not. She's so quick to hide everything. She's so quick to embrace these criminals that are doing this because she doesn't want to look bad. Well, we're going in, risking our lives to save these dogs. She is a coward. She's fake, and she's a liar. And when she said that on abc, that the animals are not neglected on skid row, to me I was like, okay, you're pure evil.
Podcast Co-host 1
Yeah, that's what it looks like. When I see her face. She just looks so demonic. Like, I. She just lies. When you're just lying, smiling. You're disgusting like that. You're just really a disturbing human. And I'm going to pray for her. So, you know, that's. I'm going to add her to my prayer list for sure.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
I don't know. I can fit a thousand people you should pray for before.
Podcast Co-host 1
What is the solution? If you could. What. What could we do? What can people do? What would be the thing that Karen Bash should be doing right now?
Joey Tuccio
I would love if her and Newsom finally did finally enforce the laws. There's all these laws that are here to protect the dogs. There's. It's not like we have to. We don't have to create a new task force. We don't have to create new laws. They're there. They know what they have to do. So why are they not being enforced? To your point, if I'm walking down Studio City and I would never do this, but. But if I was beating my dog, I would get swarmed. I would be arrested. I would be all like, whatever. So why do these people get away with it? Why? And the answer is because they're criminals. And these people, like, okay, Isabel Hirado, who is part of the people that oversee skid row, who. The biggest waste of time, Unesis Hernandez, is another one that is so quick to embrace these criminals. Hilda Solis, who a few months ago, we. It Was a federal task force that was created by Bill Aseli. Asali.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Asali.
Joey Tuccio
Asali. Him I like. So if I want to say his name right. So he created this federal task force because there was so much noise about this abuse on skid row. And so when they went there, I went too. And we removed a dog and. And he saw. He's like, this is a disaster. Like, I can't believe this is happening. And he's like, do people know about this? What is Karen Bass doing? I'm like, she knows about this, but she's not doing anything. So this federal task force was created. People like Hilda Solis, I heard, were so mad that this federal task force was created because it makes her district look bad. I'm like, we're not trying to make any full district look bad. We're trying to make these animal abusers pay and get punished. So why are people like Hilda Solis, first off, barely posting about this? And this is her district, Isabel Harado, who's also part of this district, she even just yesterday accepted another award for her work. Every time I go to her page, she's getting another award. I'm like, for what? For what are you doing getting awards for get off your ass and go to skid row? It's insane. A few nights ago I went to skid row to rescue this dog and I've never really been at night before and it was raining. And like, I feel bad for the people too. The non animal abusing people. And all you see is hundreds of people lined up trying to get into housing, try to get into a warm bed at night. And these are. These are people, these are parents, these are children. These are people freezing cold, catching hypothermia, soaking wet. And it's disturbing. And you don't see this in any of their posts. They sweep it under the rug and it's. It's disgusting. And I'm. Yeah, so.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
So where in your mind does all of this homeless money that Karen Bass and they. All these billions. If you're watching people trying to get housing, where is the billions going?
Joey Tuccio
Paychecks? You. If you look up these people like la can or the Winegard, and these people who run it make so much money. I mean, millions, Millions of dollars. And it's disgusting. Well, animal rescuers, we don't make any zero dollars. We don't get a salary. You don't get donations zero dollars. So I would love. I mean, there should be. I mean, I guess there should be an audit. But I've said this recently. I'm done taking meetings. I'm done even like trying to take meetings. Because it's just all you do is just to walk. It's to walk around. I had a meeting with Unesis Hernandez relatively recently. This is. She is. She is part of the district that oversees MacArthur park, which is, I mean, basically a gangland. And she said okay. After she started like talking nonsense. I'm like, so what are we doing? Why are we not enforcing the laws? And she said, okay, what I want you to do is I want you to write me five things that you want me to do to help the animal crisis. This is after she sat in a two hour city hall meeting with us for us telling exactly what we wanted. I'm like, stop giving us busy work. We knew what we want. Like, I could write in so many different ways. We could say it in so many different ways.
Podcast Co-host 1
What do you want? What needs to happen? What? What?
Joey Tuccio
We want these people to be arrested.
Podcast Co-host 1
Yes.
Joey Tuccio
We want enforcement. We want these people like Vamp and Howard to be in jail. We want people to be make examples of. We want the same laws that we have to follow, they have to follow. We want skid row to be completely dissected. You could go down skid row and see these drug dealers while these people are dealing or drug addicts. Why are these drug dealers getting passes? And it's just enforcing the problem and everybody knows what's going on. But no enforcement's been happening. So we want the people that were breeding these dogs that the first task force was busted, they need to go to jail. The people that were trying to sell their dog for $200, they need, they need to go to jail. People need to get punished. And there's no punishment going on. So we also need the rescues, LAPD and these supervisors who are doing absolutely nothing to work together to get these dogs out, put them in home environments. They don't have to go into shelters because to your point, they die in the shelters. These puppies that are in the shelter right now that were busted, some of them are just going to die in the shelter. They're not going to even know what it's like. They're not even going to know what it's like to have one day not in a cage or not being just living in feces. That's it. They're never going to know. They're never going to know. And it's sad and it's. And I wish that Katherine Barger, I wish that Hilda Solis, I wish that Isabel Gerardo and Yunesis Hernandez. Guys, wake up. And Catherine, you know, I. I really did respect you, but lately you've been completely failing. There was an incident in Lancaster Animal Shelter where hundreds of dogs were killed because of a distemper outbreak. And obviously distemper is really bad. There was not mentioned. No supervisor even talked about it. Dogs were put down that were tested negative for distemper. So there's no. Like, how do you not have a safeguard for when this hits? You put down 300 dogs in October, and most of a lot of these dogs were tested negative or had a uti and they're like, oh, that's December. We're going to put the dog down. It's. It's. It's horrible. And I am disgusted that these people don't. Don't even post about it.
Podcast Co-host 1
It's crazy that they can do something. You can do something. That is your job to do something. We have. We the people want you there to do something. And it's like, no. Criminals are. Have laws to protect everybody, to protect the animals. It's just. It's so infuriating. It's.
Joey Tuccio
I mean, you said something in a pot in this podcast recently, and I was like, yes, it's so true. It's like California. We love California, but they're making it so hard to live here. And it's. It's not like we hate California. I mean, I've been here for 20 years. I mean, I grew up, like, idolizing you, too. I mean, like, I. We love L. A. Like, it's not that we don't love L. A or California. It's like, it's just going off the deep end and these criminals are coming in and. Or just kind of getting even more and more, getting stronger. And we just wanted. We want to go back to the times where this wasn't an issue so bad.
Podcast Co-host 1
It feels like it's Gotham, you know, and it feels like they don't want families and good Samaritans here and normal people. They want it to be taken over in this dark, weird role. And I just don't get the agenda. That's the infuriating part.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Well, what's the crazy? So when I went to usc, and obviously we have another Trojan here, our producer on. But when I went there, I lived on Skid Row, not on the street above, in the old bank district. And it was just like. I think it was called Pete's or whatever was on the corner, but it was like one block. Now we call it Skid Row, but it goes Out. Like, to me, it's like, all the way down the street and then down to the west. Like, it just keeps growing out and out. So yet again, California, in the last five years, $24 billion, whatever it was to fight homelessness. But all. Everything just keeps increasing. I think K. Bass will lie about these numbers. Like, no, it's down. But what they do is, from what I've heard, is they literally move the encampments, keep count, then that know it, but that can't go somewhere else. So it's just. I don't understand why they don't care about human beings. So that's why. When Heidi's like, why aren't they doing something for animals? These people don't care if human beings are ODing all day long on the street. 80% of the firefighters calls are for people oding on the street. So the jump for us to expect them to care about dogs, that's what's. These people don't care about life.
Podcast Co-host 1
Yeah, well, Sheriff Villanueva told us, and, you know, they had conversations back in the day. They had this facility that they spent $50 million on that was pretty much done for unhoused people to help them to build this shelter. And then at the last minute, the government shut it down. And he said it was so incredibly infuriating because it would have really helped the homeless population and situation to actually help people and to give them a great place to be. And they built this facility. But for whatever reason, it wasn't interesting enough, or it was the money laundering or whatever it was, but he said it was just so infuriating. So it's just heartbreaking, especially with these dogs that can't stick up for themselves. They can't do anything. They're literally trapped in being tortured. Please tell me you do. It's so disturbing.
Joey Tuccio
Totally.
Podcast Co-host 1
Oh, no, that's. That's all good.
Joey Tuccio
And it's another thing Karen Bass lied about is that when she. When they go into homes, they take the dogs with them, which is a complete. To, like, you know, to insight safe or whatever. It's a lie. I mean, I've talked to people on skid row that they can't get housing because of their dogs or they get kicked out of housing because of their dogs. So it's one lie after another. And I talk to caseworkers in these housing organizations and not, you know, all the. The people there, but there's cases where they call me up, the caseworker in tears saying, we found a skeletal dog in a bathroom.
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Joey Tuccio
For weeks, we didn't know that this person who was living there went to look for drugs. Two weeks ago, we open it up, there was an incident at the grand and that these two dogs were living in an apartment in the grand, which is the housing organization. The owners were gone for weeks and we got them skeletons, complete skeletons. And I'm like, wait a minute. So you're telling me, well, how come these dogs weren't checked on? I'm sure these dogs were barking. And the person that was running the grand at the time said, oh, we don't have. We don't know how to deal with dogs. So I'm like, so you heard these dogs literally dying in an apartment for weeks and didn't do anything? Yes. And so we got them and. But then it happens all the time. It just happened a few months ago, a few weeks ago where this other dog was found in somebody's bathroom and just if just dying in this bathroom. So we ended up saving that one too. But it goes on and on. There's no supervision or there's very minimal supervision in these places. And it's is discussing another incident at the Wine Guard, which is very. This, this one gets me so mad, is that there was a dog they were treating at the Wine Guard and the Wine Guard promises all this vetting and everything. And there's wine. You go on the site and it's crazy because the opening day of the Wine Guard, Karen Bass was there, so excited.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
What is the Wine Guard?
Joey Tuccio
Wine Guard is a housing organization on skid row.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Okay.
Joey Tuccio
Get millions and millions and millions of dollars. So there was an incident that this dog we're helping, this beautiful, sweet dog had a growth coming out of his mouth. So we got it fixed. A couple, maybe like a few weeks later, the owner called me. And the owner's a very nice person dealing with his own things. And he said that his dog was so sick. He was. He brought the dog outside because the dog was really sick. Turned out the dog had some things going on inside of him. The wine guard locked the door, wouldn't let the owner in with his dog, and the dog died on the sidewalk. Not only that, and this is the. This is an organization that's supposed to be supporting these people. He said, what do I do with my dog? What should I do? They first locked the door, did nothing. He had to put his dead dog in a shopping cart, go on a bus, go. Go to Hollywood to try to find somebody for help. We went, we got the dog cremated. But I'm like, you put the.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
This.
Joey Tuccio
This is disgusting. How does these people like the wine guards lock the door. This person lives there. Like, this is so. And then not only. Or offer any resource. He put his dead dog of 10 years in a shopping cart, went on a bus with this dead dog in it, covered in stuff, so people didn't see it. I mean, it's just one of many cases and it's. It's haunting.
Podcast Co-host 1
How can people at home help? How can people watching this help? How can we help?
Joey Tuccio
Well, first of what you two are doing is already making so many waves. And I. I used to say, like, I foster and adopt, foster and adopt. But that's for every one dog that leaves the shelter, leaves the street, there are hundreds of other ones. So keep. At this point, I do feel a little bit like I'm not sure, but make waves. Be. Be mad, be annoyed. What I'm doing now is humiliation. Now I'm. I kind of took a page out of your book a little bit to be like, hey, now I'm going to start posting these people and being like, these people that are. I, you know, a couple of them, I even considered friends. These are like, you know, city officials. But now it's time for them to be humiliated. And for them, I'm not answering their phone calls anymore. I. This somebody. There's a somebody that works in the supervisor's office. And her name, Stephanie English. And I had a meeting with her and the head of one of the heads of the LA Animal Control. And I said, why are these. And why are these laws not being enforced? And she said, well, it's culturally insensitive. And then I just stopped. I'm like, well then what's the point? What's the point of even having this conversation if that's the problem? If you're saying that it's culturally insensitive? And then she said, I didn't say it was culturally insensitive. I said it's. We have to be sensitive to people's cultures. Like that's literally the same thing. If it's, if it's mandatory to spay and neuter your pet. And if I could just say, well, it's against my culture, I don't get my dog fixed. It's like, that's not how laws are created. Like you have to do it. And people just make up excuses. So I just feel like I. People need to grow a pair and people need to. I'm talking about the people in office to lay down the law and they're so scared to. Why do you think they're scared to? Because they don't want to be bad people.
Podcast Co-host 1
I think everyone's so worried about their awards and being reelected and doing right that they don't care. First of all, I don't think they care at all. If they cared, they would do something. And they're all in alignment. They're all in cahoots together. They all have the same agenda. They're all focusing on what they're supposed to be focusing on, which is nothing, which is just standing there and smiling and doing the minimum and taking the check. And that's what, what they are in to do. And they're a community to do that. So they don't care.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Well, the reason why I got so pumped up, first off, you know, since we have been married for 17 years, we've always had four dogs together. So we've been dog people. And all of our dogs recently finally went to heaven and we just ended up with a new dog that was re homed. So he's. We have him. So I was already like in dog mode. And then your video started coming on my feed. And at first, you know, they're so shocking. Like I didn't want to share them because I'm like, geez, this is too gnarly. You know, dogs with their eyes burned clothes and stitched just the Craziest, like horror movie stuff. I'm like trying to balance, like, oh, like I'm also selling my crystals. And then I was like, f these people. Like, I can't be. I can't know this is going on and not just make it part of my weekly. It's like Newsome burned down my town. Karen Bass burned down my down. Karen Bass killing dogs. Karen Bass killing like it's. Once you see it enough, thanks to your, like you said how you turn from like, let's rescue to like showing just these monsters and what. So obviously now I'm not stopping ever. I don't care if I like lose followers or people in the like, until these dogs aren't just getting murdered and tortured, I'm not going to stop posting it. Because now once you know, you. That's my point with the city people. The fact that you know this is going on and can turn the fact that any of you people vote these people in, knowing now if you're hearing this or watching this or you've seen his videos and you know that's your district leader or that's your mayor or that's your supervisor, you know their names and they're connected in any way to just dogs just being tortured to death on a daily basis. And you're fine circling their little bubble. When you go to vote or if you don't vote and you're just like, oh, I'm not going to vote, you're also fine with it. You need to make sure you go out and vote and make sure you see these names. They are connecting to, to the murder and torture of all these dogs in your communities. And you go find their names and make sure you just do a different circle. That's not their name. So it's back to like, you know, now if I fight Newsom, you know, oh, I'm a maga, conservative Republican. No, Newsom let my house burn down. I never said a word about Newsom when he made my one year old have to wear a mask all year at preschool. I was very quiet and ate for that. But once you burn my house down, I speak up. The real reason I'm speaking up now about Karabass and the dogs is she's letting dogs get murdered and tortured. So I don't care that Karen Bass is a Democrat or what. She's letting dogs die. It's people need to lose the partisanship when it becomes accountability for tragic criminal negligence. And that's the same thing with our town and people burning alive and. And it's the same thing as dogs getting burned alive or tortured. These are not partisan political issues. This is humanity. This is, do you have a soul? So that's like. But people are like, oh, he's just looking for any reason. Karen Bass is the best.
Joey Tuccio
I mean, when I, when I go on her post and I, and I comment, I mean, the response is, I mean, though it's not as frequent as I'm glad it's not, people are not knee jerk reaction. It's like, but you do get all your, you're MAGA or you're a Republican. I'm like, I don't care who runs against Karen Bass. Like, I don't even know what these political parties. Katherine Berger, Hail de Solis. I don't care. I don't. Look, what I care about, we care about is justice and it doesn't matter. But people have these knee jerk reactions like, oh, you're a MAGA and you like this. Like, I don't. First of all, I'm like the least political person ever, so I don't care. Or you know, people, when I this does, this definitely doesn't happen as often. But when I post on, you know, Karen Bass's page, it's like, oh, you just hate her because she's a black woman. Like, that's such a lazy response. I don't care anything about that. I care that she's killing dogs, that she's going on TV and saying the dogs on skid row are not neglected, which is a lie. So I care about that. But a thousand percent, like we have to drop that. These, these knee jerk excuses of like, oh, this and this is like, we have to get right down to it. It's like these dogs are dying on the streets or in the shelters and nobody, not enough people are talking about it.
Podcast Co-host 1
Yeah, people need to let go of the political party aspect, like you're saying, and look at the actual facts of what's going on. So it doesn't matter what political party they were. If she was Republican, if she was Democrat. It's like this is the tragedy that is happening. This is existing right now under her jurisdiction, under her rule, under her control that she can do something about and isn't. So that's the facts. Let's look at the facts. Let's look at what's actually happening. Not this whole theoretical political woo woo that they want you to be distracted in and so caught up in this whole trolling. And I think that they do a lot of the trolling too. I'm sure they have their own armies, their own bots, their own people distracting from the actual facts and information that is happening. That's, I'm sure, one of the things that they pay for.
Joey Tuccio
Yeah. When you. When you go on these posts and you see these people responding with this stupidity, right? You click on their profile, they have zero posts, exactly 5 million. They're following 5 million people. Nobody's following them. I'm like, okay, I'm not even getting an argument with this person. But I mean, for YouTube, it's probably even more. Because you guys have such a huge following. How do you two handle just like any kind of chaos?
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
I come here and I sit in our dirt lot. So I don't care what people say for the rest of my life, because until you have everything taken for you, just pure negligence, and then people try to cover it up and lie on it. So, you know, I use the block button a lot. Not because they affect me. I just. You don't. I don't want you to see my face because you don't deserve it.
Joey Tuccio
Has Newsom even ever tried to reach out ever?
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
No. All he's done is shame me. Called me a C list reality star, say I spread misinformation. His chief communication officer. Fat chance. Shame me. So, no. So now they call us. They call us opportunistic.
Podcast Co-host 1
So I had a friend, which is ironic about all this, but she actually recently took a dog from a homeless person. And it's a pit bull. And she said the same thing, that he was breeding her, and she was really sick and starving, and so she took him from the homeless person. And now she's like, I'm not giving it back. And the homeless person is looking for her and, like, ran into her, and so she keeps hiding from it. She is looking for a home for this dog. Do you know anyone for her to. But she, you know, she's so, like, connected to the dog and loves it, but she has three of her own, so she's like, I gotta find. So what do people do if they. If they're in that situation? If you found a dog that this is happening to, do you call you guys? How do you get in touch with you or someone else?
Joey Tuccio
Is this person in Venice, by the way?
Podcast Co-host 1
Maybe.
Joey Tuccio
Okay. Yeah, surprisingly, I think I know who you're talking about.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Okay.
Joey Tuccio
And because there's somebody who took a dog that was being bred from a homeless person. She has three other dogs.
Podcast Co-host 1
Yes.
Joey Tuccio
So it might be her. If it is her. I saw the dog at the vet the other day. The dog is so cute.
Podcast Co-host 1
It's so cute.
Joey Tuccio
So I mean first off, look, I think that the days of peacefulness are over and I think that if you see something at this point, don't even say anything, just, just act.
Podcast Co-host 1
That's what she did. She took the dog.
Joey Tuccio
Yeah. And again, this is not to say that if somebody sees a dog with a homeless person, that means, that does not mean that the dog is. Needs to be removed in any way, shape or form. Leave the homeless people alone. This is about animal abusers. This means that if it's on skid row, it in Venice, if it's in Beverly Hills, if you see anything, remove them.
Podcast Co-host 1
Well, she fed this dog for months and she investigated the situation for months. So it wasn't that she just saw this dog and knee jerk reacted and took it. She had seen what was happening. She had seen him continue to breed this dog. She had watched this whole situation and finally she was like, I have to save this dog.
Joey Tuccio
Yeah, that's so weird. If we're thinking about the same person.
Podcast Co-host 1
I bet we are.
Joey Tuccio
That's so wild to me. Okay, but I, I mean if reach out to starts with one, at the very least we could, you know, do a post or try to work under, you know, under the radar. But look, I mean there's been times where I've removed a dog from horrendous situations and they want their dog back. And this is after they surrendered the dog to us or whatever. They're never going to get the dog back. If you abuse a dog, you're not getting the dog back. If Karen Bass wants to be too weak or lazy to enforce the laws, the public will, we will. And that's all there is to it, period.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
How many team members would you say right now are in your like that are actively on your level out here doing this?
Joey Tuccio
Different rescues?
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
No, like what, what you like your level?
Joey Tuccio
Like I would say, you know, it's interesting. It's usually people that are. There's a guy who, who I love, his name is Archero. And this is, this gets me, this inspires me so much. He's 26, he's a janitor, he lives in a, you know, not the best area. He works paycheck to paycheck, barely scraping by. And this kid goes around Watts, south la, Compton and removes dogs from the most horrendous situations. He has done more for Los Angeles than Karen Bass has ever done. And this is a 26 year old kid who's a janitor and he goes around and saves these dogs so there's a lot. There's people like that that do it. I think that there needs to be more, but there's about, you know, a couple dozen that I see that I'm in their posts and I see them doing some wild things, which I applaud them doing. There should be more though, to be honest.
Podcast Co-host 1
What was your first dog rescue and how did. How were you inspired to do that?
Joey Tuccio
I was actually going to bring the chain here, but I couldn't find it at the last minute. So there was this dog that in Compton and you know, the more we do this, the more calls we get. And this dog was being abused severely. So me and my friends, we went, well, I mean, it's a long time ago, so I, you know, I don't care, but. So we went with the crop with wire cutters and we went. And this poor dog was in this shitty igloo and it was freezing. It was in the winter and he was so thin. And this dog was being abused over. So we're in the middle of night.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
We.
Joey Tuccio
We got the chain off from the. The whatever it was and we took the dog out. His neck was. So the chain was so tight around his neck that there was indentations all around his neck, all around. And this dog was skin. Skin and bones. This dog name was Vegas, which you can imagine why a pitbull was named Vegas. So. And he. We put him into a home, a very amazing home. And he lived there for two years before he died of cancer. So that was the first one. And it was scary because you never know who's going to come out and kind of shoot you in the head. But I. It is to your point. We have turned. No, they have turned LA into Gotham. And it's only right that we fix it. And it's. They're. They're not taking it seriously. So we will.
Podcast Co-host 1
Can you imagine on their trajectory where this, where these cities and where this state is going? It's terrifying.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
It's crazy.
Joey Tuccio
I almost feel like. Do they know? Are they that stupid?
Jan from Toyota
I don't know.
Podcast Co-host 1
They don't care. They don't.
Joey Tuccio
They don't care.
Podcast Co-host 1
They literally don't care. Because you know what? They don't really live here. They're not on the streets. They're not in this society. They're on their jets, they're in Napa. They're in wherever they go.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Ghana.
Podcast Co-host 1
Ghana. They're in Brazil. They're in their penthouses and their suites and their mansions and their security. It's like, well, yeah, you guys are safe. But what about the rest of us? What about us hardworking, tax paying, family oriented people or, or whoever, or whatever. But it's like, it's, it's crazy. It's devastating what they continue to allow and letting up on not enforcing, you know, enforcing less laws and less stability and less. I mean, it's just, it's.
Joey Tuccio
We had a meeting, to your point, with a woman named Deborah Hockman and she works for an assembly person and she. This is really recent too. And she was talking, I was talking about skid row, of course, and she's like, okay, so what do you want us to do? Maybe we could set up a meeting, another meeting. And I said, no, this weekend. Do you want to come with me to skid row? And she completely went silent. Oh, I don't know if I could. I don't know if I should. I'm like, well then you're not going to know what's happening unless you come down and see it. She has, and this was a couple of weeks ago, she's not responded since. I'm like, you have to go down to skid row and see it. Get off the. These, get off. Come down and come, come see what's going on. And they don't. The only person who has come is Katherine Barger. And the. Which I respect though I'm very disappointed that she has swept this Lancaster blood massacre under the rug where hundreds of dogs were put down, some not sick. And there's no investigation, there's no, the public doesn't even know about it. So I'm raising awareness for that right now.
Podcast Co-host 1
I think also there must be something that's going on where maybe she did bring it up to someone and they're like, don't talk about that again. That's not your, you know what I mean? Like, who knows who else and what else is involved with ignoring these type of situations? Because it's not in the interest of this or this bill's trying to be passed, or there's just so much switch and bait and so much behind the scenes dynamics going on and scheming and all these, you know, money. It's all about money. It's just all about money. And that's the infuriating thing. It's not about the justice.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
Well, here's what, when it comes down to money, LA has no money. So somehow they've, they're broke. So if you bring up dogs, like, well, we don't have the money to save dogs. We, we have, we're, we're a billion dollars in debt or whatever. So that's the thing they have just destroyed. It's like, that's so bad.
Joey Tuccio
And it's because I've, we've talked to them and we said, we don't want your money. We can do this without your money. And complete like, they're like, still, whatever. We don't care. And it's, it's wild. Look, there's two people to blame. It's Karen Bass and it's Newsom. Those are two people to blame, period. End of story. And I think they are telling people to shut up. And those two people, you know, and I think, you know, when I talk about Newsom, their knee jerk reaction is, but he's taking down Trump. Leave him alone. He's taking down Trump. I don't care what he's doing. I care that he's letting these dogs die on the streets. I'm care that he's letting these children on skid row die of hypothermia on the streets. Streets. So I'm not going to wait three years for this to be rectified and him become president. Oh, my God. Is the time. There's no more delay because I don't, I'm not going to pick up any more dead dogs on the street. Not. I'm done. I'm not.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
And that's it. We're ending on that note. Make sure you follow what's your ig, Joey Tuccio.
Joey Tuccio
And starts with one today.
Podcast Co-host 1
And thank you so much. It's so sad. Thank you so much for doing what you're doing and every dog and every fight and putting yourself in danger and fighting that fight. And the world is a better place because of you and people like you in it. So thank you. Thank you. I'm going to add you to my real prayers. Thank you.
Joey Tuccio
And thank you too. You guys are doing so much work and you, whether you know it or not, you're inspiring a lot of people to step up. Not just for dogs and maybe not even just for California, but you're inspiring people to step up and that's amazing. Well, thank you.
Podcast Co-host 1
Thank you.
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Hey, campers, it's Jan from Toyota. This summer we're headed to Camp Toyota and the fun starts now. We're kicking things off by kicking, picking up mud. Jump in, campers. We're going off roading in a 4Runner next we're heading to the Hot Springs in Arav 4 and finally park your Tundras and Tacomas around the campfire because we're roasting marshmallows. Your summer start here.
Joey Tuccio
Dealer inventory, Mayberry.
Podcast Host (possibly Heidi Montag)
So your participating Toyota dealer for details. Event ends June 1st. Toyota let's Go Places.
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Episode: ReRun: A Hero to the Animals: Fighting for the Lives of Dogs and Exposing Systematic Corruption with Joey Tuccio
Date: April 30, 2026
Guests: Joey Tuccio
Hosts: Spencer Pratt, Heidi Montag (Speidi)
This gripping episode focuses on Joey Tuccio, a prominent Los Angeles animal rescuer known for ferociously advocating for dogs suffering on Skid Row and within the city’s troubled shelters. Speidi candidly unpacks the dangerous realities Joey faces in dog rescue work, the bureaucratic failures and cover-ups within LA's city government—including direct criticism of Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom—and how animal rescue intersects with homelessness, systemic neglect, and grassroots justice. The tone is passionate, frequently outraged, and refuses to mince words about the high stakes for both animals and the vulnerable human populations of LA.
Background & Motivation:
Real Dangers on Skid Row:
Breaking His Silence:
Law Enforcement & Legal Loopholes:
Failure of Political Will:
Task Force Ineptitude:
Overfilled & Deadly:
No Collaboration:
Physical Danger & Emotional Toll:
Vigilante Ethic:
Enforce Existing Laws:
Transparency & Political Courage:
Practical Help for Listeners:
Transcending Partisanship:
Joey describes the “Sophie's Choice” of rescue:
"We pick a dog. Sometimes it's just this, and then we leave, and we don't know what happens to the other dogs, or sometimes we do, and it's more heartbreaking." ([06:14])
On Skid Row’s realities:
“[On] every street on skid row has a drug dealer. Every street has people watching that people like me don't, you know, take somebody's dog.” ([13:33])
On politics and responsibility:
“We want these people to be arrested... We want the same laws that we have to follow, they have to follow.” ([27:28])
“If Karen Bass wants to be too weak or lazy to enforce the laws, the public will. We will.” ([48:40])
On the myth of help in shelter systems:
“For every one dog that leaves the shelter, leaves the street, there are hundreds of other ones…we need more.” ([37:56])
On burnout and courage:
“There are many times where I feel overwhelmed and I don't want to do it anymore, and I'm just over it, defeated. Then I see what you guys are doing. … You guys keep me going, and I thank you both.” ([02:49])
Heidi on political blame and moral clarity:
“People need to lose the partisanship when it becomes accountability for tragic criminal negligence…These are not partisan political issues. This is humanity. This is, do you have a soul?” ([41:26])
Joey’s vow:
“I'm done taking meetings. … Now it's time for them to be humiliated. … I'm not answering their phone calls anymore.” ([26:18], [37:56])
| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:14 | Joey describes Skid Row dog rescue, “naming names” begins | | 06:14 | The "Sophie's Choice" of rescue; Joey’s origin story | | 08:43 | Public confrontation: Karen Bass denies animal neglect | | 10:16 | Police-enabled “dog sale” and Skid Row task force failure | | 13:33 | Legal barriers, LA Can, and enabling of abuse | | 17:40 | Risks and escalation in dog recovery operations | | 18:53 | Shelter system is broken and incentives for inaction | | 19:42 | Failures in city communication and collaborative solutions | | 22:24 | Joey’s condemnation of city leadership | | 23:37 | What Joey wants: enforcement and consequences | | 27:28 | The “federal task force” episode and supervisor failings | | 33:03 | Housing system lies and realities for pets/humans | | 35:10 | The horror of skeletonized dogs in “housing” | | 37:56 | Ways to help—public pressure and “humiliation” tactics | | 41:26 | Heidi: “This is not a partisan political issue…do you have a soul?” | | 43:36 | Joey: “I don’t care who runs against Karen Bass…” | | 47:40 | How individuals can respond to abuse/neglect | | 50:35 | Joey’s first rescue and “vigilante” operations | | 54:54 | “We don’t want your money…We can do this ourselves.” | | 55:45 | Joey’s closing: “I’m not going to pick up any more dead dogs on the street. I'm done.” |
Instagram: @joeytuccio
Organization: @startswithonetoday
For more context on LA’s animal crisis, follow Joey’s ongoing work and monitor Speidi’s platforms for additional advocacy updates.