The final season of Pit Bulls & Parolees aired more than a year ago on Animal Planet, but Tia Torres–- founder of the Villalobos Rescue Center (VRC) featured on the show–- said many fans of the show still wonder why the beloved series ended after 18 seasons.
In fact, Tia recently told fans on social media that it’s “the Number 1 question” she is asked.
“ … I guess you can call them ‘big tech’ came in and bought up some of the smaller networks on cable TV, one of which was Animal Planet, and just did away with [the show],” she explained.
Tia previously told fans that Animal Planet and other networks under the Discovery umbrella were sold to Warner Bros., which led to the end of many shows, including ‘Pit Bulls & Parolees.’ While the series continues to air on TV, Tia noted that it isn’t new content.
“What you are seeing on Animal Planet now is just reruns,” she said. “They literally cut off our funding and left us in the lurch trying to keep hundreds of dogs alive and about a hundred employees fed. So, it’s been a struggle.
“Because of this, I had to get creative so I came up with the idea to set up my own network, which is called Rabid Reality.”
Tia describes Rabid Reality as an online network “kind of like Netflix,” where fans of ‘Pit Bulls & Parolees’ and VRC supporters can access a variety of content, including shows, podcasts and more–- all of which are related to either dogs, prison, Tia Torres herself, Tia’s family or employees of VRC.
“It’s everything that kind of encompasses what we do in everyday life,” she added.
One of the shows available through Rabid Reality is Life with the Underdogs, which Tia said is a “spinoff of ‘Pit Bulls & Parolees.’”
“So you see, for those of you who are addicted to ‘Pit Bulls & Parolees,’ we can quench that thirst,” she said. “It’s the same show, it’s just a more condensed version.”
Monthly subscriptions to Rabid Reality start at $3.
“The best part is, 100 percent of the proceeds go to the rescue,” she added.
You can watch Tia’s full video below!
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(Photos: Animal Planet; Instagram)
Why does she say “funding”? It was a job, the contract ended and they decided not to renew. Like were they supposed to fund her lifestyle forever?
That’s a shame.
Hopefully the website does well.