Big John is so agreeable to people’s requests that he must have been held and handled, carried and cuddled as a puppy. Someone taught him manners. And, to please his people, Big John learned. He must have believed that those people would reward him with love, food and shelter.

But Big John made one lethal mistake. He grew. When strangers noticed the 100-pound, one-year-old Cane Corso mix, he was scavenging through discarded Taco Bell bags and other trash, desperate to ease his hunger pains. Big John’s people had stopped giving him either love or food.

The shelter staff says that the now-neutered boy, “Has never been anything but sweet.” They hope, “He will never have to worry where or how he’ll get his next meal.”