| Pit Bulls and Parolees | |
|---|---|
| Format | Documentary |
| Created by | n/a |
| Starring | Tia Maria Torres |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | near Los Angeles |
| Running time | approx. 60 min (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Animal Planet |
| Original airing | October 30, 2009 |
Pit Bulls and Parolees is a television show televised on the American Animal Planet cable channel. It premiered on October 30, 2009, attracting over 16 million unique viewers since its debut. Animal Planet introduced a second season starting in the fall of 2010.[1]
Contents |
The show features the happenings around the Villalobos Rescue Center, the United States' largest pit bull animal shelter with approximately 150 to 200 dogs.[2] The center's founder, Tia Maria Torres, agreed to be on the show to pay for Villalobos' $20,000 per month bills.[3] Pit Bulls and Parolees depicts the day-to-day operations at Villalobos, including rescues of abused, neglected, and abandoned dogs, and the Center's efforts to adopt out dogs to new owners. The show also depicts the interactions between Tia, her daughters Tania and Mariah (who help run the shelter)[4], and Villalobos' staff of volunteers and employees, many of whom are parolees, as referenced in the show's title[3]. Torres reportedly began to employ parolees based on the suggestion and experiences of her husband, Aren Jackson (A.J.), who had encountered the difficulties that many parolees experience in finding employment after he himself was released from prison.[5] Among the day-to-day happenings featured on Pit Bulls and Parolees are the Torres family's efforts to free A.J. from prison, where he was sent after a police raid on the Villalobos ranch turned up a stolen motorcycle[5]. While the Torres family had argued that the motorcycle belonged to another parolee, a second season episode of the show depicted the family agreeing to a plea deal in which A.J. acquiesced to a prison term after being threatened under the three strikes law.
Recently, Torres had planned to move Villalobos to a small town called Tehachapi, California, around 75 miles north of where it was, but she was unable to secure the necessary permits. She is now moving out of California and splitting into two separate states/locations. The Sanctuary aka the "Pit Bull Ponderosa" will be located in New Mexico. A 50 acre ranch was donated. This location will be used for the pit bulls who are unadoptable, to live out their lives in the peace and serenity of the high desert. Due to the overwhelming Pit Bull population, the new rescue/adoption facility is being set up in the 9th Ward of New Orleans, LA. [6]