Tia Maria Torres is an American animal rescue activist and founder of Villalobos Rescue Center which solely focuses on rescuing stray and abandoned animals. She is a TV personality who became famous after her show “Pitbulls and Parolees” aired in 2009.
The show revolves around the owner of the Villalobos rescue center who works with parolees to rescue abandoned dogs, especially Pitbulls. Tia Maria revealed in the series that many people consider Pitbulls to be aggressive and hostile.
So, Pitbulls are often left when they get bigger. The show follows the parolees and Tia’s family carrying out rescue missions and training sessions for rescued dogs. She lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, with her family and her rescued animals.
Who is Tia Torres?
Tia Maria Torres was born on June 11, 1960, in Los Angeles, California. Her childhood was spent on her family farm, where she was acquainted with animals.
She lost both of her biological parents at a young age and was raised by her stepmother.
Her stepmother introduced her to the world of loving animals. She was an empathetic girl and a qualified equestrian at the age of fifteen years old.
After she completed her schooling, she left her mother’s home and served American army for six years. She then started her own small rescue center after her discharge from the army.
The sixty-two years old animal activist first became familiar with rescuing dog breeds when a distant relative dumped a wolfdog on her doorstep.
The hybrid breed was considered a trend in the 90s, but people pretty soon abandoned it when they knew that they require extra care.
Her first wolfdog, Cujo, motivated her to rescue other dogs who were the victims of illegal breeding. After she adopted some wolfdogs, she was encouraged to open a rescue center to house them.
Villalobos refers to the home of wolves in the Spanish language. She named her rescue center Villalobos because, at that time, she was constantly rescuing and fostering abandoned wolfdog breeds alone.
After she started rescuing Pitbulls too, the job was becoming harder for her to do alone, so she hired a parolee to work in the center. Many people during 2000 were not willing to work with dangerous dog breeds.
After a few months, parolees came to her for work, and she worked with them.
In 2007, a magazine wrote an article about the rescue center, and they gained the positive attention of the whole country for their work in the center.
After that, Tia Maria was offered multiple TV shows, but she initially refused the project. However, after careful consideration, she accepted the show “Pitbulls and Parolees” as the rescue center needed donations and funds to keep going.
What happened to Pitbulls and Paroles? Why is the show ending?
Tia Maria Torres and her parolee’s workers starred in the reality TV series “Pitbulls and Parolee” in 2009. The first episode of the series premiered on October 30, 2009, on Animal Planet.
The show recently completed its nineteenth season on November 26, 2022. The sixty-two years old founder of the Villalobos Rescue Center dedicated thirteen years of her life to the show.
In these years, she rescued more than 100 animals that desperately needed to be cared for and have a house.
However, at the start of the nineteenth season of the show, Tia Maria Torres revealed that it is the final season of the show.
The main reason for this is the merging of Discovery, which owns Animals Planet, with the media giant WarnerMedia.
The tv show star has shared through her social media that the merger has brought changes in the channel and its business decisions.
She stated in the media that she would like to start her own platform instead of relying on the new decision-makers. Her show had also faced financial cuts in the past.
She had many bad experiences and hardships trying to make the businessmen running the media understand what is best for the show, and she has revealed her frustration regarding this.
She now plans on creating her own platform similar to Animal Planet, which will be publishing her own new show and other content related to animals.
What is she doing now?
Tia Maria Torres has now wrapped up her show “Pitbulls and Parolees” with Animal Planet and concluded the final season of the show.
In 2022, she launched her new channel, “My Rabid Reality” and has used the platform to show the unreleased segments of the show.
She has published various podcasts and web series through the network. On December 3, 2022, she and Villalobos Rescue Center came back with a new show, “Life with the Underdogs” which premiered on her new channel.
She also publishes videos through her YouTube channel ‘Tia Torres (My Rabid Reality)’ which has more than thirty-five thousand subscribers as of December 2022.
I LOVE Pitbulls snd Parolees, watching it now. I want MORE!!!. Will it be back? IS the shelter itself still in operation??
I love it to but I want what is best for Tia her family and the porolies
I can understand why Tia decided to end her partnership with the Discovery Channel. I have, since The Discovery Channel merged with Warner media, become so frustrated and often disgusted with their indifference to viewer topic interests (for future, present, & rerun episodes).
There is no rhyme nor reason to their scheduling of shows which should follow within a similar theme for specific time periods – especially prime time.
lmo, they are just trying to pull the wool over our eyes with offerings of shows that they market as all-time-favorites in order to cut back as much possible on production costs.
Why not rename the show, ‘Animal Planet Cuts: Mixes of Series 1996 – ‘ ‘