The Rescuer – A True Story About the Man Who Built the World’s Largest No-Kill Animal Sanctuary
The Rescuer is the moving and inspiring documentary film about Leo Grillo, a man who loves animals and has a burning passion to rescue the dogs and cats that have been abandoned and deserted in southern California’s deserts and wilderness. Starting over 35 years ago, Leo now owns and runs the world’s largest “super shelter” and animal sanctuary in Acton, California—housing over 1500 abandoned dogs and cats. D.E.L.T.A. (Dedication and Everlasting Love to Animals) is considered the largest organization of its kind in the world and includes over 150-acres of animal sanctuaries. It is the largest no-kill, care-for-life sanctuary in the United States, with more cats and dogs housed in one place than anywhere else in the world.
The Rescuer chronicles how Grillo started in 1979 as an up-and-coming young actor living in southern California—and while driving to a location shoot, spotted an abandoned, starving dog wandering under the hot desert sun. Leo captured the homeless, helpless dog, and brought him back to health, but quickly realized there were more dogs just like this one—that were dumped and left to die in the wilderness. This first experience opened Leo’s eyes to a shocking problem: annually, millions of pets are tossed out and simply left to perish in America’s deserts, forests, open spaces and wilderness. Leo began spending more and more time rescuing homeless animals, and before long, he had rescued 35 more abandoned dogs—and completely outgrew his home. This was the beginning of a 35-year journey to building the world’s largest care-for-life sanctuary where every rescued animal is well fed, medically cared for, has hundreds of yards of space to run, has wading pools, their own dwellings, and shady coverings, and two dedicated state-of-the-art hospitals on the grounds that include dog and cat intensive care units, physical therapy and rehabilitation, deep-tissue ultrasound, electro-stimulation, treadmill and hydrotherapy.
Film Released: 2010
Film Length: 1 hour, 20 minutes
A Note from Leo —“In 2012 this documentary was entered in a number of film festivals where it won many awards. Rather than playing to small audiences and charging for admission, or selling DVDs, I want everyone to see it so we are letting you stream it here on the D.E.L.T.A. website for FREE. This would be a wonderful classroom video for teachers to play, for nursing homes and hospitals, as well as being interesting to reality show audiences across the world.”
~ Leo Grillo
More About D.E.L.T.A.
Visit the website at www.deltarescue.org
Make a donation / Mail a check to: D.E.L.T.A. Rescue, P.O. Box 9, Glendale, CA 91209
Meet Leo
See photos of the cats and dogs
LIKE the Facebook page
Subscribe to their YouTube Channel
Quotes from the Film
“Some people are too busy or too insensitive to find a proper new home for their unwanted pet, so they take the animal and the easy way out—and just abandon it.”
“She was shivering this morning, she was shivering from the cold and wet rain.”
“The reason people abandon their animals in the first place, is that they are moving, so they just let them go. The first week the animal slowly starves and gets depressed. Add the bad weather and disease, then you have an animal dying very slowly and painfully.”
“Now if I had a year, I could get friendly with them, and put a noose on them and that’s it. But with the parvo and distemper, we don’t have a year.”
“There’s no one way to do anything. We just never give up, we just keep trying different things—and just never give up.“
“People don’t even know foxtails can kill a dog.”
“What was right for the animals was to get the land and build the shelter.”
“The dog had been so abused, it took her a year before we could get her to even stay in the room before we walked in.”
“We have to get her out of here, this is Parvo City. If she strays to the other side of this hill, she will be exposed to the virus.”
“When we lost her, I promised I would get her parents.”
“Everyone that is here at our sanctuary are cared for—for life.”
“Some bastard threw him out, and some other bastard shot him.”
“I use all my skills, all my life experience to catch these guys.”
“Day 100 – still trying to trap the mama dog. Day 575 still trying to trap the mama dog. Day 719 still trying to trap the mama dog. I just was feeling good today that I was going to get her. And I did!”
“There is nothing more musical to me than the sound of a trap door slamming shut, knowing that dog is finally safe.”
“All of my vehicles have traps in the them for catching freeway animals.”
“I have 1200 animals, we have two dogs in every yard, and we have 94 acres of dogs out there, plus we have 500 cats.”
“I have been at this for 20 years, and sadly I have to report that not too much is changing out there.”
“It’s an obsession, I’m in the field 4-5 hours a day just trying to catch one dog.”
“I finally ran into some dogs that I cannot catch.”
“We’re going to get her, I just hope it’s this year.”
Film Credits
Director/Producer – Leo Grillo
Cinematographer/Editor – Ermanno Vanino
Produced by – Living Earth Productions
