I have been writing about the lack of enforcement on the homeless and their mistreated, out of control dogs for decades. As a pit bull advocate and rescuer, it pains me to see they are the dog of choice for drug addicts, dog fighters, and other criminals. All four of my pit bull mixes came from terrible beginnings, and two of them — Skylar and Quinn — came from homeless addicts in San Francisco. I’ve seen more abused, neglected dogs turned into ticking timebombs than I can remember, and I’ve been shouting from the rooftops that these dogs running around the public off leash is not only cruel to the dogs, which are sometimes used by addicts to test the lethality of their drugs, but a danger to the public.
In 2014, I wrote a column for the Marina Times called “Homeless dogs of Golden Gate Park: A tragedy waiting to happen” in which I foreshadowed the issues we see today. I ended it by saying if officials didn’t get a handle on it, “the next tragedy will likely involve a human being — and I don’t want to be the one who says, “I told you so.” Twelve years later, the problem has only gotten worse, with puppy mills running out of “permanent supportive housing.” The latest trend is breeding pit bulls with Cane Corsos, a much larger breed that can weigh more than 100 pounds. “They are intelligent, loyal, eager to please, versatile, and intensely loyal to their humans,” the American Kennel Club (AKC) says of “Corsis,” but they are also “assertive and willful, and can end up owning an unwitting owner. As with any other big guardian dog, responsible breeding and early socialization with people and other dogs is vital.” Does that sound like a good match for a person in the fentanyl fold?
Several months ago, a woman living in a Tenderloin public housing complex was begging for formula on the NextDoor app. Her female pit bull had mastitis (inflammation of the teats) and couldn’t feed the seven puppies she had after being bred with the woman’s Cane Corso yet again. The multimillion-dollar private San Francisco SPCA, which does nothing for San Francisco dogs while opposing mandatory spay and neuter along with the AKC and the Coalition on Homelessness, gave the woman free veterinary care but didn’t spay her. Instead, they sent the dog back with the owner to the underaged puppies she couldn’t feed. After concerned citizens alerted Animal Care and Control (ACC), the city’s understaffed, underfunded shelter, officers visited the woman who was living in a tiny room with the mother and father dogs and the puppies, which had grown chubby thanks to donations of formula. After officers said they would be back when the puppies turned eight weeks old and could be spayed and neutered, the woman told a Good Samaritan who donated formula that she would “make sure she sold the puppies before that happened.”
Maddeningly, she is just one of dozens of public housing breeders selling puppies on the streets even as ACC kills a record number of dogs. Meanwhile, to coerce city officials into stalling the passing of a mandatory spay and neuter law (that also included enforcing licensing and leash laws) the SFSPCA promised to take 300 dogs a year from ACC. As soon as the law was “tabled until next year,” the SFSPCA reneged on that promise and continues cherry picking purebreds from the Central Valley. In fact, grassroots rescues like Rocket Dog take more dogs from ACC than the SFSPCA does, as I exposed in a 2009 undercover investigation. They really should stop misleading the public and take “San Francisco” out of their name.
Besides the overpopulation crisis, there’s another very important reason to neuter male dogs — multiple studies note that failure to do so is a common preventable factor in severe dog maulings. For example, a 2022 Animal Welfare Institute study found that over 60 percent of fatal attacks on humans were committed by unneutered male dogs.
‘The Bonnie and Clyde of the Tenderloin’
After all of my years writing about shelters, rescues, and animals advocacy, I’ve gained a reputation as “the dog reporter,” so it wasn’t a surprise when a woman was mauled by a pit bull mix recently that I began getting direct messages and anonymous tips about the incident. As is often the case with stories involving drug users, things aren’t always as they seem.
Multiple sources and witnesses in the Tenderloin tell me that Amber King, the woman who was attacked, lied to police and to the media when she claimed a “stranger asked her to hold the dog.” People who know King and her boyfriend, “Ronnie,” agreed to speak on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by the couple. “There are pictures of them up where I live and in other buildings saying not to let them enter because they’re known for stealing and drugs,” one acquaintance said. Another thing I heard more than once: “They’re like the Bonnie and Clyde of the Tenderloin.”
According to a witness, on Sept. 8, 2026, around 9:20 a.m. King, who is homeless, got into a heated argument with a fellow homeless person on Larkin Street and tied the dog to a pole to cross the street and continue fighting. The dog became agitated by the commotion and got loose, charging and attacking the person with whom King was arguing. When King yelled and struck the dog to “calm it down,” the dog turned on her as well. As others ran away, the large, unaltered male Cane Corso-pit bull mix latched onto her arms as she guarded her face, leaving her unconscious and bleeding on the ground. Police arrived on the block between Eddy and Turk streets to find the bloodied dog in a state of nervous confusion, pacing around King and the surrounding area as observers filmed. An officer roped the dog with a catch pole and appeared to choke it until it died on the sidewalk.
King told the police that a stranger had asked her to hold the dog just moments before, but those familiar with the couple’s situation say that isn’t true. “She was keeping the dog for a friend who was locked up in jail, and she had it for a while,” one person said. “Ronnie didn’t want her having the dog because he said the owner mistreated it and blew meth in its face and it wasn’t alright in the head. Ronnie was telling her to give the dog to someone else because it was dangerous. But Amber didn’t listen and kept the dog anyway.”
Records show that King has been arrested in San Francisco more than two dozen times since 2014. Charges include multiple counts of breaking and entering, robbery, burglary, vehicle theft, possession of drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, receiving stolen property, possession of burglar’s tools, committing crimes while out on bail, concealing stolen property, trespassing, and grand theft. She also has arrests in other counties including San Mateo.
Records show that King has been arrested in San Francisco more than two dozen times since 2014.
Now sources say King is on a media tour with a friend named Rachel Guido who started a GoFundMe. “Rachel is telling her what to say, like not to admit the dog’s owner is a friend and that she agreed to watch it for him while he’s in jail. They’re trying to make money off of this even though they spent all these years being drug addicts and criminals and robbing other people,” one acquaintance said.
According to the GoFundMe page, the money raised will help “cover Amber Nicole King’s rehab, rehabilitation housing, and other recovery-related needs as they arise.” However, since King is indigent, all of her medical expenses will be covered by taxpayers. As of Sept. 30, the GoFundMe has raised $3,445 of the $8,000 ask.
On Sept. 21, King told her story to Luz Pena, a reporter for ABC7 Eyewitness News, while lying in a bed at her friend Rachel’s home. Pena, who isn’t known for doing her research, listened attentively as King once again lied about the circumstances surrounding the attack, this time telling a totally different tale.
“King, who is homeless, said she had been waiting for city housing in the Tenderloin when someone she barely knew asked her to watch his dog. She said she tied the dog to a post, and seconds later it charged at her,” Pena says in the video.
“The guy was moving and he needed help. Me, I’m a helper,” King says. “So, I just happened to help, and I had the dog tied up. How the dog got loose I don’t know.”
As Rachel fusses over King, ABC’s Pena says in a hushed tone, “An act of kindness that has changed her life.”
Years ago I wrote this:
Homeless dogs of Golden Gate Park: A tragedy waiting to happen
by Susan Dyer Reynolds
MAY 2014
On Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014 at 10:40 p.m., San Francisco police responded to a 911 call about a dog attack in progress at 25th Avenue and Lincoln Way at a homeless encampment near Golden Gate Park. When officers arrived, they found two pit bull mixes, a white female named Cleo and a black male named Frisco, running around, barking nervously. A homeless man had been badly bitten, he said, after the dogs’ owner left them in his custody. Another man riding a bike who tried to stop the attack was also bitten. Police summoned Animal Care and Control (ACC), but because they are severely understaffed, only one officer, Pete Flores, was on duty. When he arrived and was unable to secure the dogs with catchpoles, he called Lt. Denise Bongiovanni for backup, who got out of bed to rush to the scene. Meanwhile, Flores took off through the bushes after the dogs.
DOG SHOT WITH ASSAULT RIFLE
According to the police report, 20 minutes went by as police lined up, guns drawn. During this time, Frisco returned to the scene, where he climbed up on a picnic table and lay down on his owner’s belongings. At that point, Capt. Mark Osuna authorized one of the officers to “stop the threat.” The officer says he “shot the dog in the back” from 100 feet away with his assault rifle, severely wounding him. As Frisco writhed in agonizing pain, the officer approached the picnic table and, using his pistol, shot him in the head. Eventually Cleo was captured and taken into custody, and it was later discovered that Frisco was not the aggressor and, in fact, had caused none of the injuries to either man.
WHO’S AT FAULT?
This story is a tragedy for Frisco, but it is also a cautionary tale of human tragedy waiting to happen.
Several years ago I wrote an editor’s note for Northside San Francisco magazine called “The thugs who run Haight Street,” in which I pointed out that a lot of the homeless kids living in Golden Gate Park aren’t the happy hippies of the past, but rather hardened and often violent criminals. I called upon the police and the Board of Supervisors to get a grip on the situation, particularly the packs of unaltered dogs these thugs keep for protection.
So it was no surprise when I discovered that the man who “owned” Cleo and Frisco has an extensive, violent criminal history and a rap sheet a mile long. Ultimately, he is to blame for the men’s injuries, for Cleo being euthanized, and for Frisco’s horrific death.
But lawmakers and the police also bear some responsibility. It’s no secret that ACC has a severe budget shortage, and San Francisco’s budget committee left them out of their budget again last year. According to Supervisor Scott Wiener, who is trying to get more money for ACC in the upcoming budget, there are only 11 ACC officers to patrol the city 24 hours a day, and only one officer on at night. Had there been two to three ACC officers on patrol the night of Jan. 28, Frisco would likely not be dead.
DEADLY FORCE ONLY AS LAST RESORT
The embarrassingly poor handling of the situation by the police is, I’m sure, something San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr would like to see go away. The fact that Frisco was shot in the back while lying down on a picnic table tells me that he was in no way aggressing toward the 20 officers standing in front of him with guns drawn. I don’t think Capt. Osuna would give the command to stop the threat if a human suspect dropped the weapon, put hands on head, and lay down on the ground.
Officer John Denny, who presides over San Francisco’s Vicious and Dangerous Dog Court, says there are written guidelines for handling vicious dogs. “After Oakland dealt with P.R. nightmares like shooting a dog in the backyard of a home that was being burglarized and shooting a fawn in a resident’s bushes, we put it in writing. Deadly force is always the last resort,” Denny says. He also pointed out that all SFPD sergeants and patrol officers have attended a one-hour class about how to handle aggressive dogs. However, no one from the command staff, including Capt. Osuma and Chief Suhr, has ever attended the class.
IRRESPONSIBLE OWNERS
Denny also agrees that the unaltered homeless dog population in Golden Gate Park and the types of people who keep them are a problem. “With an owner like that, Frisco and Cleo never had a chance. It’s my understanding that Frisco was born in Golden Gate Park and he fathered Cleo. So you’ve got irresponsible inbreeding going on there and they just keep having more and more puppies.” The majority of the dogs born and bred in the park are pit bull mixes because, Denny says, “they are the dogs of choice for these guys. They’re big and strong and loyal and they’re eager to please their owners. I’m actually a huge fan of the breed, but you can’t just leave them in a backyard or give them no exercise or attention.”
Denny also says pit bulls tend to get the worst of the worst when it comes to owners. “Look at the Nicholas Faibish case,” he said, recounting the tragic death of the 12 year old in 2005. “His father used to kick the dogs apart because he didn’t want the female mating with the male dog in the house, only with the male dog in the backyard. When Nicholas went in that basement, he tried to kick the dogs apart — he was imitating his father — and that’s when they attacked him.”
LAW ENFORCEMENT LACKING
It’s illegal to have unaltered pit bulls or to breed pit bulls in San Francisco, but because of the shortage of animal control officers, enforcing the law is difficult.
The fact that people with long, violent rap sheets are inbreeding litter after litter is an ominous sign that the Board of Supervisors, the budget committee, and the SFPD need to pay attention to immediately. If ACC can’t afford to hire more animal control officers, and the SFPD continues to ignore the problem until they get a 911 call, the next tragedy in the park will likely involve a human being — and I don’t want to be the one who says, “I told you so.”
