Guardian of the Puppies

[image by Humane Society Tampa Bay]

Some of you may have heard of Dave Bautista before. Those who know him may recognize him as Drax the Destroyer from the Marvel movie "Guardians of the Galaxy" and others know him from the wrestling show WWE. Regardless of where you know him from, he definitely has a tough-guy attitude. Given his size and physique, Bautista isn't a guy you would be messing with. However, he does have a soft side (to some extent). A couple of days ago, Bautista adopted a "horribly abused" puppy and even put a bounty out on the puppy abuser. That's right! Bautista would even go as far as to pay money for whoever brings the abuser to justice.

He heard about this abused puppy from the Humane Society of Tampa Bay in Florida. The puppy, named Sage, was found eating trash in a cemetery with a metal chain tightly embedded on her neck. Sage was then taken to the animal organization in which she went through painful surgery to remove the chain from her neck and cure rashes on her skin and cut her highly long, overgrown nails. According to the vets, she was wagging her tail despite being through "immense pain."

Dave Bautista heard of Sage's story, decided to adopt the pup, and put out a bounty on the guy responsible for the damage done to Sage. Bautista posted on his Instagram @davebautista pictures of Sage and a caption that states: "ATTN Tampa Bay: I will personally hand $5000 cash to the person who gives information leading to the arrest and conviction of the sick piece of sh-t responsible for this. In addition @humanesocietytampabay is also offering $1500. If you know anything please contact @humanesocietytampabay or @safek9." Still, there have been no new leads on the suspect yet.

Bautista adopted the puppy, now renamed Penny, along with two other pit bulls. Support for Penny and Bautista's bounty quickly grew, with actor Mickey Rourke also adding another $1000 to the bounty as well as Tampa Bay's law firm, also matching Bautista's $5000.

Not many people know about Bautista's love for dogs, particularly puppies. Bautista stated at the Humane Society, "To me, there's nothing more innocent and pure than a puppy. For someone who can abuse a puppy has got to be the lowest form of human being, pure evil, for someone who can abuse an animal like that. It makes me sick to my stomach." He also added that animal abusers are "evil."

Well, who knew our favourite Guardian of the Galaxy and WWE wrestler would go as far as putting out bounties for animal abusers. Do you think the perpetrator will get caught? If you could go to such lengths, would you go and bring this unknown man down? Would you adopt an abused puppy as well? I certainly would…