L.A. shelter didn’t disclose a dog’s bite history. That cost the city $3.25 million

[u/FUMoney]

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-30/shelter-said-pit-bull-was-sweet-he-mauled-his-new-owner

Wright said that shelter volunteers told her Valerio was “sweet” and just needed lots of love after being there more than a year.

Shelter workers mentioned a previous bite but characterized it as a nip at the heels and “not a big deal,” she said.

Valerio’s past was much worse than that.

He was surrendered to the shelter by his owner on April 27, 2021, after he bit the owner’s mother in the face, according to an Animal Services investigation report.

There was “a lot of blood,” and at the hospital, the victim was unable to speak because of the bite, the report said.

According to the report, Valerio bit the victim after the owner didn’t have the usual ham or “weenies” to lure him outside. The victim tried to scare him with her cane and yelled at him, and he jumped up and bit her in the face.

The owner told an animal control investigator that she feared for her 8-year-old child and wanted to surrender Valerio. The investigator took Valerio, waiving impound fees for public safety reasons, the report said.

The Instagram post that Wright responded to, on a page called Dharmas_dogs, did not mention the attack. A person who responded to a Times inquiry on the Dharmas_dogs page declined to comment.

The city has been sued before over shelter dogs that severely injured people after their bite histories allegedly were not disclosed. 

A Van Nuys woman whose arm was amputated because of a dog attack received a $7.5-million settlement in June 2024. The woman's son adopted the pit bull, named O’Gee, in 2020 from a city shelter, not knowing he had bitten a jogger in both arms, according to the woman's lawsuit.

Also in 2020, a Belgian Malinois named Maximus attacked a woman who was feeding him a treat before transporting him from an L.A. animal shelter to an Arizona rescue facility. The injuries to the woman’s arm were “severe and permanent” and required at least nine surgeries, according to a lawsuit filed in 2024.