An Influencer Kept a Dog Stolen From an Unhoused Man and Is Refusing to Return Her
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There has been no shortage of wild influencer stories during this period of social distancing and political unrest, including Instagram personalities who posed in blackface to “combat racism” and those who monetized their ill-advised road trips away from covid-19 hotspots. Still, those egregious behaviors are predictable. The following story is something else entirely: Brittany Littleton, an Instagram influencer with 32.4 thousand followers, co-owner of the LA vegan restaurant Sugar Taco and owner of the animal rehab Little Love Rescue (501c3 pending), allegedly accepted a dog stolen from an unhoused man and is refusing to return her to her owner.
HEART L.A., a housing equality advocacy organization, has sued Littleton on behalf of their client, Elliot Haas, an unhoused man whose support dog of many years, Luna, is now in Littleton’s possession. According to a press release, in January, a couple approached Haas at his tent on Glendale Boulevard and offered him a table and chairs. While he moved the furniture, they allegedly grabbed his dog and drove off. Haas filed a police report and learned Littleton had the dog (allegedly, she was friends with the couple that took the dog.) He called Littleton, who he said initially refused to return the dog, before adding that she spent $6,000 on vet bills and suggested that if he wanted her back, he needed to pay that total. (Littleton launched a GoFundMe for Luna, which appears to have raised $7,276 for her bills.) According to NBC Los Angeles, Littleton released a statement saying, “We were not previously made aware of a lawsuit, but this information is inaccurate. The poor dog was surrendered to us in life-threatening conditions and we helped her.’’
On June 26, HEART L.A. announced that Haas appeared before a judge, Mary H. Strobel, in Los Angeles via conference call. Littleton failed to appear “or oppose the writ of possession,” the press release reads, and so the judge “granted Haas’s writ. Littleton and Little Love Rescue must now return Luna or face being held in contempt of court.”