When Jason Flatt picked up Belle Jenni, a dog with ulcerated eyes possibly burned white from chemicals, this dog rescuer didn’t have much hope. “I thought she was going to die,” says Flatt, founder of Georgia-based Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull. “You could hear her lungs crackling; you could see every skeletal structure. It was horrible.”

Thanks to Jason’s care, and a hefty dose of Halo, Belle Jenni has made a remarkable comeback. “The dog is amazing now,” says Jason, 37, who, thanks to Freekibble.com and Halo, received 2,100 meals worth of canned Halo Spot’s Stew. “Halo was the only food she ate during her recovery.”

Saving dogs, particularly pit bulls, drives Jason almost 24/7. He has driven to states including Texas, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Nevada. “I’ll go anywhere to get a dog,” he says. In October, this New York City transplant’s zeal – combined with the legal bite of a private investigation firm and local law enforcement – helped lead to the largest animal cruelty bust in Georgia’s history, involving 98 dogs kept in horrid conditions.

Dubbed “The Dublin Dogs,” Jason’s pleas on Facebook for foster and forever homes for many of these dogs tore at my heart-strings: Within days of me asking him if New Jersey was too far away to foster, a woman from Georgia transporting other strays to a New Jersey rescue delivered a wonderfully affectionate six-month-old Dublin Dog I’ve named GinGee. Many more of GinGee’s former pals need foster and permanent homes; they can be seen at www.friendstotheforlorn.com, where you can also contact Jason, who funds his non-profit entirely by donations, which all go to the dogs’ medical care and other needs.

Palena Dorsey, founder of Sanctuary Animal Refuge in Clewiston, Florida is in awe of Jason, who picked up Belle Jenni for her in Kansas City, Missouri. “It’s unusual to see a man so committed to rescue,” says Dorsey, “but one as young as Jason is astounding, especially as to his commitment to it.”

So committed, Jason says, that he often finds it hard to sleep on the California king size bed he shares with his wife and five dogs. “I take in some dogs in really bad shape,” says Jason, whose dogs’ many ailments include emaciated, anemic, bad leg, blind. One, named Deuce, is a 10-month old with an out-of-whack patella. “He’s come way back,” says Jason. And Deuce loves his Halo. “As soon as you pop a can of Halo, he gets up on his bad leg, he smells that Halo, and forgets he can’t put his rear left leg down.”

The managing director for a financial publication, Jason grew up in an apartment in Queens, New York with dogs and cats rescued from the city streets. “I said when I have a big house with a fenced-in yard, I want to take in dogs,” he says. When he moved to his home north of Atlanta four years ago, that is exactly what he began doing, with a focus on pit bulls. “I couldn’t believe that one out of 800 pit bulls make it out of the pound alive,” Jason says. “No other breed is more abused than pit bulls, whether from fighting or neglect.”

That tattoo-covered Jason is oftentimes mistaken as a dog fighter, which helps in his work trying to take down fighting rings. “They don’t think I am a dog rescuer,” he says. “I try to catch guys breeding them and selling them. The last thing the world needs is another pit bull. People say you’ll get yourself killed, but this is something I need to do.”

I, for one, have completely changed my mind about pit bulls, thanks to my exposure to many wonderful, friendly dogs considered pit bulls. Unfortunately, their reputation is so awful that Jason oftentimes can’t find good homes for them. “I could rescue dogs every day,” he says, “but it’s adopting them out that is the problem.”