{"id":386347,"date":"2025-11-18T00:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/386347\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T00:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:09:12","slug":"dog-in-intensive-care-after-being-set-on-fire-in-south-la-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/386347\/","title":{"rendered":"Dog in intensive care after being set on fire in South LA \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

A South Los Angeles<\/a> dog is recovering from severe burns and tissue damage it suffered after being set on fire on Halloween.<\/p>\n

Sandra Viveros found the dog, Luke, after she saw a post from a neighbor saying they had seen him running away from a homeless encampment and that Luke appeared to be on fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Viveros, founder of the dog shelter Compton Paw Patrol, showed up to the encampment to get Luke from its owner, she said they were reluctant at first and weren\u2019t taking the situation seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey downplayed the severity of what he had going on,\u201d Viveros said. \u201cThey said it was just his fur was burned a little bit and he could just dust that off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luke was first taken to a veterinarian, who then got in touch with Dr. Hernandez Merino at California Animal Rehabilitation and Emergency Surgery, or CARES. The dog has been under intensive care at CARES since.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the rescues already knew about us and reached out,\u201d Merino said. \u201cWe were happy to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merino and Dr. Mishka Williams, chief of surgery at CARES, have been treating Luke, whose burns cover nearly 30% of his body. The doctors said that when they shaved off nearly half of his hair, they realized that the damage was much more serious.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, we also noticed that he had an infection,\u201d Merino said.\u00a0 \u201cThe dead skin stayed on top, and that infection went right underneath. He had an infection in several areas of his burnt skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The infection was resistant to commonly used antibiotics, so the doctors gave him several pain medications through an IV and have been changing his bandages daily.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williams said Luke will likely have to undergo a couple of surgeries to fully heal the areas where the damage is most severe, including his ear, armpit and groin.<\/p>\n

However, over two weeks after Luke was set on fire, the doctors said his road to recovery is looking a whole lot brighter, especially after a reduction in medication.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we\u2019re scaling back on those, when he sees people, he loves being around (them),\u201d Williams said. \u201cEven with everything that\u2019s happened to him, they take him out for a walk (and) he\u2019s super excited. He has a good heart, and he doesn’t seem to be holding any grudges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viveros said this is not the first time she\u2019s seen an animal abuse<\/a> case like this, and that the severity seems to go up with each one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When it comes to preventing another situation like Luke\u2019s, Viveros said the public has an important role to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you see something, say something,\u201d Viveros said. \u201cDon\u2019t turn a blind eye. Do whatever it is that you need to do. Help the animal. Don\u2019t be scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luke will be up for adoption once he is fully recovered and released from the hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South Los Angeles dog is recovering from severe burns and tissue damage it suffered after being set…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":386348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[3425,1582,276,2961,224,5337,7618],"class_list":{"0":"post-386347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-south-los-angeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}