The curious thing is that Dave Bautista doesn’t talk about them as dogs he “saved”. He says that, in a way, they saved him too.
It all began in 2019, when he adopted Maggie and Ollie, two 6-year-old pit bulls who had been abandoned and had spent a long time waiting for a family. Bautista grew so attached to them that he started looking differently at the number of dogs still waiting in shelters for a second chance.
Then came Penny. She was found eating garbage in a cemetery, with a chain embedded in her neck that had to be removed in emergency surgery. When Bautista learned her story, he offered US$5.000 to find the person responsible for the abuse.
No solid leads ever emerged, so he made another decision: to adopt her. He renamed her Penny and promised she would never suffer again.
Later, Talulah joined them, also rescued, and his house ended up full of four pit bulls who had needed someone to choose them.
Since then, Bautista has also become an advocate for adoption and has worked with the ASPCA to help change the perception of this breed. He sums it up this way: “I needed them, they needed me”.
Today, he says his dogs are “his happy place” and that he will keep talking about adoption for the rest of his life.