Help Support Rocco's Transformation

Hi Friends

We are sharing the story of Rocco, an 8-year-old Bully breed that we rescued from Harbor Animal Shelter in San Pedro, Los Angeles the day he was due to be euthanized.

Poor Rocco. Discarded at the shelter by his owner. Someone that was supposed to always protect him, essentially disposed of him like trash. To make matters worse...Rocco spent 7 months of his 10-month shelter stay in Solitary Confinement until he was ultimately "scheduled" for euthanasia. He was confined in a small cement cell in the isolated "back kennels" for the majority of his stay. Despite many shelter pleas and networker requests, no one was willing to take a chance on Rocco. Why?

Well... for starters, Rocco is a 75 lb senior Pit mix. That alone can turn some away.

BUT... Rocco was also listed as "Rescue-Only" by the shelter after a leash-biting incident with a volunteer. Rescue-Only means that the dog is deemed "unadoptable" by the shelter for one reason or another. Sometimes these reasons are legit, other times, they are rather unfair.

As many may or may not know, Shelter Dogs get almost no time outside of their kennels. A walk means everything to a Shelter Dog.

Because of their sheer excitement to leave the kennel, combined with all of the surrounding stimuli (ex: loud noises, smells of other animals, etc.), many dogs tend to "lack manners" while on their walks. It is difficult to expect a shelter dog to behave properly in such chaotic conditions.

While on a short walk, Rocco saw some little dogs barking at him behind a fence which caused him to pull and lunge toward the dogs. After being corrected, he allegedly re-directed at the volunteer, biting at the leash. He did not make contact with the volunteer's hand but was allegedly attempting to jump up and bite their fanny pack.

Without being there for this incident, it is extremely hard to say what happened or what headspace Rocco was even in. We know that Rocco definitely “acted out”.. but how fair is it to sentence him to 7 months of isolation for an event like this?

And even worse, does he deserve euthanasia? Was he given a fair chance? Our Rescue (The Pitty Committee) believes Rocco deserves the opportunity to prove himself outside of the shelter, after properly decompressing. As of now, he is very reactive to dogs..but why should we expect any different from Rocco at this point? Is it fair to have ANY expectations, when he just spent almost a year locked away?

____________________________________

We have the chance to send Rocco to an amazing Board & Train Program. Rocco’s Training would consist of 6-7 weeks of intense therapy to help him work through whatever happened before we rescued him.

With your help, we can make this happen. $2800 is a lot, but if 28 people were to donate the price of a coffee every day for one month, we would be set.

We want to give Rocco every opportunity to thrive. He deserves it. We know he can be a WONDERFUL addition to someone’s family. He just needs a little TLC and time to reset.

We will post Rocco's training updates! Please be sure to follow us on Instagram

Thank you so much for your continued support.

We could NOT Save the Dogs without you!

Love,

The Pitty Committee

Venmo: PittyCommittee last 4 digits *7462

Zelle: 6192047462 (Alyssa)

PayPal: Link HERE

Other payment options on our website at ThePittyCommittee.org

Check out our TPC merch campaign HERE