'Pit Bulls And Parolees' Returns To Animal Planet For A New Season With A New Cast Member
Maybe your like
Baton Rouge New Orleans Acadiana Shreveport Lake Charles Gambit Log in Subscribe Log out Site search News Sports Entertainment Games Opinions Obits Jobs Homes Store Public Notices E-Edition Newsletters 
- Log out
- Log in
- Subscribe
- My account
- 56°
- Copy article link
- Save
- Copy article link
- Save
pitbullsandparolees.jpg
'Pit Bulls and Parolees.'
(Animal Planet)
The New Orleans-set Animal Planet docu-reality series "Pit Bulls and Parolees" returns for its fifth season at 9 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 2) with a new cast member. Matt Eldridge, a 27-year-old New Iberia native who's currently residing at the Warren McDaniels Transitional Workforce Center in New Orleans, is the show's first work-release inmate.
Tia Torres and her Villalobos team have made a reputation (and a popular TV series) out of rehabilitating both entities mentioned in the show's title. Eldridge, serving 15 years on marijuana and gun charges, travels back-and-forth to work in Torres' 9th Ward headquarters via Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office van. His seven-day-a-week schedule runs from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., though he will stay a little late Saturday to watch the season premiere with his shelter coworkers.
“I'm looking for something better in life,” Eldridge said during a recent phone interview. “I don't want to go back to the same old things. My whole time in prison, I've always tried to visualize what I can do to better myself. There's really not a lot of pressure, because I know what I have to do. It's not hard to do it. A lot of people stuck their necks out for me. I understand that, and I appreciate it from all of them. They know they don't have to worry about me too much. I come here, I do my job.
“People are skeptical about people coming out of prison. With me still being in there, there are so many guidelines that I have to follow. I pretty much know what I have to do, so I just kind of keep walking the straight line. It's very cool that these people actually do this for me. This is an awesome program to be in. Not everybody gets a chance like this.”
Eldridge got his chance by first working at Pen Pals, the Humane Society of the United States animal shelter facility on the grounds of the Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, La. An entry interview with the facility's administrator revealed that Eldridge had limited prior experience.
“He ask me what I know about dogs,” Eldridge said. “I said, ‘I know how to clean up (poop), and that’s pretty much all.’ I had one dog growing up that I really never took care of. It was just like a family dog.”
Eldridge’s only earlier work with animals had come during a much earlier stint of community service work in a Mississippi shelter after a teenage shoplifting charge.
“All I did there was clean kennels and catch cats to spay and neuter them,” he said. “I told (the administrator) I'm willing to learn. I’ve got a lot of common sense. In prison, the jobs you have are in the kitchen, cleaning up dorms or cutting grass. That’s something that everybody knows how to do. Working with the animals is a good thing. That’s something you can take home with you and make a career out of. Not a lot of people know how to do that. So that was really cool, to get involved with it. I pretty much did everything that I could to learn from it, and it paid off, especially with this.”
Eldridge said his fellow overnight residents of McDaniels are curious about the show, as well as the work he does at the shelter.
“They call me Pit Bull,” he said.
Torres, he said, “is a great person.”
“She's always open to ideas,” he said. “She’s an ideas woman. She’s not a (jerk), is the easiest way to say it. She knows so much and a lot of people that know a lot about whatever, they're pretty much a (jerk). ‘You can’t tell me anything. I know it all.’ She’s not like that at all, which is super cool, and makes her really good to work for.
“There's a lot of great people that work here. I have nothing bad to say about anybody. Doing this job, this isn't something you just do for a paycheck. This has to be in your heart. You have to love the animals. It takes a lot of dedication for this, and a lot of people have it here, which is really awesome.
“At the end of the day you feel good about being able to help someone out. It’s so much easier to help a dog or cat or any animal than it is to help a human being. You get that good feeling. You kind of feel like a hero at the end of the day.”
Got a TV question? Contact Dave Walker at [email protected] or 504.826.3429. Read more TV coverage at NOLA.com/tv. He's @DaveWalkerTV on Twitter, and Dave Walker TV on Facebook.
- Copy article link
- Save
Tag » Why Is Matt Back On Pitbulls And Parolees
-
Country Matt From Villalobos Divorce
-
Country Matt Returns To Villalobos
-
Earl Moffett's Life Was Changed By Caring For Animals On 'Pitbulls And Parolees'
-
The Real Reason Mariah And Marcel From Pit Bulls And Parolees Divorced
-
This Is Why Mariah And Marcel From Pit Bulls And Parolees Got Divorced
-
Pit Bulls And Parolees
-
Pit Bulls And Parolees
-
Downriver Dog Rescuers In Legal Fight With 'Pit Bulls And Parolees' Star
-
Did Baldur The Mastiff Pitbulls And Parolees? - Neeness
-
Tia Torres & Villalobos Rescue Center WIN! - Kirk, Huth, Lange & Badalamenti, PLC
-
Pit Bulls & Parolees TV Listings, TV Schedule And Episode Guide | TV Guide
-
'Pit Bulls & Parolees' Exclusive: Earl Is Arrested And VRC Scrambles To Get Him Right