INTERVIEW: Shorty Rossi — saving a breed, one pit bull at a time

Shorty Rossi comes with a history.

The star of Animal Planet’s Pit Boss is the first one to admit that his current success in life didn’t seem likely when he was a much younger man. Convicted of attempted murder when he was only 18 years old, Rossi spent 10 years, 10 months and 10 days behind bars, many of them at Folsom State Prison in California.

“When I got out, I was unemployed for about a month,” Rossi said recently during a phone interview. “It was hard to get a job, and a couple of producers at Universal Studios saw me dancing at a nightclub, and they offered me a dancing gig at the theme park. And I didn’t know what it was at first. They said, ‘Well, we want you to be Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks.’ I’m like, get out of here.”

Now on the other side of 40 years old, Rossi has seen his trajectory in life completely change. He runs a successful pit-bull rescue operation and manages a talent agency for little people. His career has been on display for Animal Planet audience members for a couple of years, and he’s delighted so many people know his story and his passions in life.

“I never thought that it would happen,” he said. “It blows my mind in any way that I’m here today and I’m a public figure, not just a popular actor or something, but a public figure with a cause that people respect.”

Today, Rossi is recognized in public as the star behind Pit Boss, although he shares the popularity with his closest confidante, Hercules, a pit bull that most audience members have come to cherish.

“I’ve always been doing pit bull rescue since 2001, in a smaller form,” he said. “And I’ve been a talent manager since 2000. And you know as the pit bulls, having the bad rap that they had, even worse a couple of years ago, I was always trying to pitch a show about little people like from the talent management side, and you know I kept on getting the door slammed in my face.”

Rossi refused to back down. For all of his meetings with potential producers, he brought along a couple of his dogs, including Hercules. Even though he was pitching a story about little people actors, it turns out the dogs were the major selling point. Animal Planet was looking for edgy entertainment and Rossi’s pit bulls fit the bill. “It’s always been my passion for these dogs, but I never thought it would be on this level,” he said. “Because there was never, you know, a pit bull show on until Pit Bulls and Parolees and Pit Boss came on.”

The show has brought awareness to the breed, showing people that adopting a pit bull doesn’t sound as outlandish an idea as it did a few years ago. Rossi, the ultimate defender of his dogs, said the problem is in stereotypes. People have a tough time shaking an image from their mind.

“The problem with our society is that we tend to train people and animals the wrong way,” he said. “Pit bulls are a very strong, muscular, powerful breed. And why in your right mind would you want to train a dog with that much power to be vicious? Even if middle-class America wants to get a guard dog, and they get a pit bull, and you train it to be a guard dog, what you’re doing is training them to kill. If you want a guard dog, get a less powerful dog like a German shepherd. If you want a companion, you raise it the right way, like you raise your kids the right way hopefully, you’ll have some of the best dogs in the world.”

Rossi freely admitted to the dogs saving his life. After prison, he said the statistics were working against him. The chances of him returning to the old lifestyle were high, but he was determined to break from the cycle.

Simply put, saving pit bulls saved him.

“These dogs saved my life from going back to prison because they gave me the motivation to help them out,” he said. “So I have a bond with them.”

And this is not a passing hobby. Rossi has devoted his entire life to the dogs. Hercules, his most well-known companion, is with the reality TV star almost 24 hours a day. In some ways, the dog has become an ambassador for the breed, traveling with Rossi around the country to pet expos. Last year they logged 170,000 miles on an airplane.

“I always say, when I go home to eight dogs … the worst thing that can happen is who peed in the kitchen and who ripped up my pillow,” he said. “Instead of having a girlfriend that is either cheating on your or stealing half your house, I’d rather go home to the dogs. Pit bulls are misunderstood, just like little people, and that’s why I understand.”

The time needed to film Pit Boss and promote pit bull awareness has taken him away from being a talent manager. But he sees this new life as the right track for him at this time. “I’d rather be able to do something in the positive sense and put more effort in that and giving something back to the community than the talent management company,” he said. “I don’t have to audition for a role to be in a movie to be somebody else. I get to be on TV and get to be who I am, which I love.”

The show has also allowed Rossi to speak openly about his criminal past. Before Animal Planet’s series, he largely kept quiet about his prison time out of fear of being judged. In fact, he said he enjoys taking questions on his sordid history.

“If I didn’t make the mistakes that sent me to prison or running with the gang, if I didn’t do all what I did, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you, because I may be dead, killed or in jail for the rest of my life,” he said. “People ask me, do I have regrets? Yes, I have regret for the person I hurt, but I don’t have regrets on anything else I did in life, because it’s making me the person that I am today.”

Whether talking about his past, his talent agency or his pit bull rescue efforts, Rossi said he will answer any question for fans. This openness seems ingrained in his personality. Here’s one anecdote:

“It’s the funny thing on my passport, on my driver’s license, it says Luigi Francis Shorty Rossi,” he said. “When I go to check in, and I’m getting ready to go the security and the FAA at the airport, and my ticket says Shorty Rossi, they have to look twice at me and then have to look twice at my passport to make sure it’s on there. It’s kind of amusing. And people even today are still kind of uncomfortable, like I can’t call you Shorty, can I call you Luigi? Like call me what you want.”

Rossi said he hopes Pit Boss and his rescue efforts continue forever. He’s found his place in life — and a few companions to travel with him along the way.

“I can do this until the day I don’t wake up, whether it’s tomorrow or 30 years from now,” he said. “I don’t just talk about how wonderful they are, I live with them.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Click here for more information. Pit Boss airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Animal Planet.