MISUNDERSTOOD MEN AND UNWANTED DOGS REDEEM EACH OTHER IN RETURN OF ANIMAL PLANET'S "PIT BULLS & PAROLEES"

Tough-As-Nails Yet Compassionate Tia Torres Builds a Community at the Villalobos Rescue Center in Second Season of Successful and Gritty DocuDrama

(New York, New York) - Tia Torres has a tough life - marriage to a convict, single mother to two daughters and adopted twin sons, and driving force behind a facility for unwanted pit bulls run by parolees... Most recently, she witnessed a huge wildfire threaten her beloved Villalobos Rescue Center - endangering her and her staff, hundreds of animals and the only property that has been her home for more than a decade.

This fall, when the 11-episode second season of Animal Planet's PIT BULLS & PAROLEES returns on Saturday, October 30 at 10 PM (ET/PT), the drama at Villalobos has intensified. A ring of the phone brings news of a pit bull sentenced to death in a law suit with national notoriety. A parolee with a violent past is reunited with his family through his caring and gentle work with one of Tia's dogs. Mother and daughter find themselves at odds over doing what is right and doing what is legal. The already-packed shelter finds room to give a stray a second chance at the urging of a parolee desperate for the same. These stories that viewers will connect with are all in a day's work at Villalobos Rescue Center for Tia Torres...and she wouldn't have it any other way.

For Torres, the owner of Villalobos, the largest pit bull rescue center in the U.S., a deep commitment to second chances is the driving force behind her 10-acre sanctuary near Los Angeles, where outcast pit bulls receive the rehabilitation they need to move on to loving homes, and the "Underdawgz" program provides parolees with a job, a home of their own and a fresh start. Villalobos is the sanctuary and backdrop to all of the action that goes down on PIT BULLS & PAROLEES.

"Tia is a force of nature - a resilient and powerful mother and business woman when it comes to handling her family, her pit bulls and the parolees who work for her," said Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet Media. "Her complex relationships with all of them and the depth of her compassion make for a dramatic, appealing and surprisingly human second season."

The new season takes a deeper look into Villalobos Rescue and the manner in which Tia runs the center and the Underdawgz program, while raising twin sons Kanani and Keli'I and daughters Tania and Mariah, who look to take a more active role in the center. In addition, season two dives into pasts of key the members of the "Underdawgz" - like Jake and Armando - and their current struggles as they fight for the pit bulls and themselves to convert their notorious reputations.

"Some of the parolees arrive at Villalobos with a tough exterior and a troubled past," says Torres. "But through their working with the pit bulls they are able to make a change in their lives and that rubs off for the better on the dogs."

PIT BULLS & PAROLEES is a production of 44 Blue for Animal Planet. Rasha Drachkovitch is the executive producer for 44 Blue, and Lisa Lucas is the executive producer for Animal Planet. Marc Etkind is the vice president of development for Animal Planet.

Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 97 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.