This week we found an animal shelter with a reality TV show that uses parolees for helping hands. Also, an 8-year-old third grader writes a book about pet adoption.
On 17 acres in the rugged terrain of Canyon Country, Tia Torres provides a place to live or work for six parolees, 225 pit bulls, 204 volunteers, two French bulldogs, 19 cats, a husband and four kids. But the rescue’s been a money pit requiring creative financing. So now she’s turning to reality TV — with Animal Planet’s “Pit Bulls and Parolees.”
“He never gives up,” Deni Bayer, 37, said of her son, a rising third-grader who spent much of the summer working on the book. “For him to sit still this long, any of his teachers will tell you, is a big deal.” The book’s initial print run is 150 copies; the book sells for $10. Joshua said he will divide the proceeds from book sales among Whipkey’s group, the Charles County Humane Society and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.