Pit Bulls & Parolees is an American
reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
series on
Animal Planet. The series, which began in 2009, focuses on the Villalobos Rescue Center, a rescue for
dogs
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
, specifically
pit bull dogs.
The show's mission, stated in voiceover during the show's opening credits by founder Tia Maria Torres, is twofold: to combat misconceptions about pit bulls and other similar dogs (often referred to as "bully breeds"), and to provide employment and a stable transition for recent parolees who are trying to return to society.
Episodes generally feature several stories, and usually include both a dog rescue as well as an adoption. Episodes also feature Tia and her family, including daughters Tania and Mariah, adopted twin sons Kanani and Moe, their wives Lizzie and Mariah (or "M2"), and the parolees who work for the rescue, performing daily care training duties and pit bull rescue missions.
Background
''Pit Bulls & Parolees'' depicts the day-to-day operations at the Villalobos Rescue Center (VRC).
Torres started the shelter in
Agua Dulce, California. In 2011, the shelter relocated to the
Greater New Orleans
The New Orleans metropolitan area, designated the New Orleans–Metairie metropolitan statistical area by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, or simply Greater New Orleans (french: Grande Nouvelle-Orléans, es, Gran Nueva Orleans), is a me ...
in Louisiana.
In 2011 Tia Maria Torres had planned to move Villalobos to a small town called
Tehachapi, California
Tehachapi (; Kawaiisu: ''Tihachipia'', meaning "hard climb") is a city in Kern County, California, United States, in the Tehachapi Mountains, at an elevation of , between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. Tehachapi is east-southeast ...
, around 75 miles north of where it had operated in Agua Dulce. It appeared to be an ideal place for VRC to relocate with the overabundance of Pit Bulls in Kern County and a prison facility in town, with newly released inmates looking for work.
VRC secured all the proper permits yet at the final moment Kern County did not grant permission for the rescue to conduct their business in the remote area of Old West Ranch, Tehachapi. Losing all of her personal savings spent on the Tehachapi project and hundreds of man hours Tia Maria Torres and the VRC were forced to remain at the Agua Dulce location.
As the rules regarding kennel permits were becoming increasingly strict and expensive in Los Angeles County, the rescue announced on November 13, 2011 that they would be moving the facility out of California in order to survive financially. After considering various locations, it was the memories of VRC's rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina that led the non-profit group to choose Louisiana for their new home. It took almost a year to make the entire move complete.
On January 1, 2012 Tia Maria Torres arrived with the last group of 30 of the total 160 dogs making the state of Louisiana their one and only permanent location. The new rescue and adoption facility is located in the Upper 9th Ward of
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
with various other satellite locations scattered throughout southern Louisiana.
On June 15, 2020, it was announced that the sixteenth season would premiere on July 25, 2020.
A 2021 episode illustrated continued damage the rescue location in New Orleans gets from storms and hurricanes; in that episode, Torres announced that the rescue had secured another property in New Orleans and would be relocating to that property.
Episodes from the show's existing library regularly air on Animal Planet weekdays at 1 PM EST.
References
External links
Villalobos Rescue Center websiteAnimalPlanet.com - Pitbulls & Parolees*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pit Bulls And Parolees
2000s American reality television series
2009 American television series debuts
2010s American reality television series
Animal Planet original programming
Animal rights mass media
Television shows about dogs