Chef James Rigato Adopts Chandler, Horrifically Mutilated Detroit Dog

DETROIT, MI — Chandler is a fortunate dog indeed. Any home with kind people would be an improvement for the dog, found bleeding from a botched neutering job in Detroit’s Chandler Park last month. But Chandler landed in the home of award-winning chef James Rigato and his girlfriend, Sam Stanisz.

Chandler, a 5-week-old pit bull puppy abandoned and left to die at the park, suffered horrific wounds. When found, he had a gaping, festering hole in his belly and his genitals were hanging out. Animal rescue workers said the genital mutilation was one of the worst cases of animal abuse they’d ever seen.

If not for the Good Samaritan who found Chandler and brought him to Detroit Dog Rescue, he surely would have died an agonizing death, rescue workers said.

“Those are the real heroes,” Detroit Dog Rescue Executive Director Kristina Rinaldi told WXYZ-TV. “Those are they people in everyday life that stand up and do something. They saved Chandler’s life.”

More than $22,000 was raised in a GoFundMe campaign to cover the costs of surgeries to repair the damage done to Chandler. Detroit Dog Rescue also is offering a $2,000 reward to find the person responsible for injuring Chandler,who was named after the park where he was found.

Chandler underwent skin grafts and spent time in the intensive care unit. In May, Rinaldi said Chandler was out of intensive care and nearly ready for adoption after what she called the “back-door neuter-spay (job) gone wrong.”

“And just like that, the impossible was made possible,” Rinaldi posted on her Facebook page. “Thank you to James Rigato and Sam Stanisz for adopting Chandler today. It melts my heart to see him with his big sister Oda the Doberman.”

The dog settled in at Rigato and Stanisz’s home Monday.

“It’s awesome,” Rigato said in a WXYZ-TV Facebook video. “We’ve been thinking about adding a dog to our family and Chandler’s story came up... We do a lot of sharing and posting and donating on Facebook, but I think the real contribution is... to adopt and obviously rescue... You definitely want to rescue. Especially in the city of Detroit where you have so many opportunity for stories like Chandler’s. His story is about cruelty, but there are a lot of dogs that are neglected, abandoned. Litters of puppies that can’t be taken care of. Detroit Dog Rescue is amazing.”



Rigato, who is currently wowing diners at his Mabel Gray restaurant in Hazel Park, has a resume full of culinary honors. The Schoolcraft College-trained chef opened The Root Restaurant & Bar in White Lake Township in 2011, capturing the attention of the editors at Food & Wine, where he won The People’s Best New Chef: Great Lakes Region 2015.

He also has been a James Beard Foundation finalist in 2016, won the Detroit Free Press 2012 Restaurant of the Year Award and was named the 2013 Best Chef by Hour Detroit. He also competed in Season 12 of the Bravo network’s “Top Chef.”

Rigato opened Mabel Gray in 2015, offering Michigan-sourced menus as he does at The Root.

Photo via GoFundMe