Villalobos Rescue Center

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

March '96 - Certificate of Appreciation - L.A. County Animal Control
March '98 - Certificate of Appreciation - L.A. County Animal Control
April '98 - Certificate of Appreciation - L.A. County Animal Control
May '98 - Certificate of Appreciation - City of Newhall
July '99 - Certificate of Appreciation - City of Irvine
Nov. '99 - Award of Excellence - City of Los Angeles
Dec. 99 - Certificate of Appreciation - The Leeza Show
Dec. ' 99 - Voted Most Important Person - L.A. Weekly Magazine
Dec. '99 - Voted Most Important Person - Antelope Valley Press
Oct. 2000 - Certificate of Appreciation - City of Burbank (Police Dept)
Feb. 2001 - Certificate of Appreciation - City of Hawthorne
May 2001 - Award of Excellence - City of Riverside
May 2001 - Certificate of Completion - Rogerson Dog Aggression Seminar

CREDENTIALS

Training instructor - L.A. City Animal Services
Training instructor - Pets In The Hood Project - L.A. County Probation
Expert witness for criminal case (Dec. 99) - L.A. County Sheriff/Animal Control
Behavioral seminars (Pit Bulls) - 1999- for all council districts for city of Los Angeles
Animal trainer (domestic/exotic) for the film industry - credit list available upon request
Behavioral instructor (Pit Bulls) - L.A.P.D./L.A. City animal control officers

REFERENCES

L.A. City Animal Service - Dan Knapp (General Mgr.) (213)-473-7555
L.A. County Animal Control - Judy Meraz (supervisor) (562)-940-6898
Christian R. Bojorquez - Deputy City Attorney (police litigation section) (213) 485-3332
Kathy Riordan - Commissioner to L.A. City Animal Services (310) 476-7349

WHO I AM

Tia Maria Torres grew up a true California girl, in a upper/middle class family surrounded by animals and parents who lived the exciting life working in the film industry. After deciding that this was not "exciting" enough, she then wandered into the "wrong" neighborhood one night, only to be pulled into gang life quite quickly. After a few near brushes with the law, bullets and gang fights, Tia was "sent off" to the Army for 6 years, where she came out just as rebellious as she went in.

But this time, her degree in "gangology" was put to good use and she was offered a career with the city of Los Angeles as a youth gang counselor. From there she held many positions within the social services field as a gang counselor for various agencies, teacher's assistant for schools with high gang population and a counselor for a residential treatment center for sexually abused, drug rehabilitation and criminal offenders.

After 13 years in the social services field took it's toll on Tia's own life, she then went back to what she knew best - animals. After accepting an offer to train animals for the film industry, Tia found herself traveling all over the world and seeing the way children in other countries lived. It was then that she knew what had to be done.

Tia then chose to combine the two "loves of her life" - kids and animals. Villalobos Rescue Center/Pets In The Hood is just another name for "controversy". Here we deal with controversial animals and controversial kids and we wouldn't have it any other way.

BLESS THE BEASTS AND THE CHILDREN