Pets can save your life and you can save theirs
My wife would come home crying on the weekends and I knew why. Her heart ached for many of the dogs and cats that she met, knowing she may never look into their eyes again. It started out for her as a mission to make life just a little better for them for as long as they might be alive. Our shelter was a kill shelter then and the euthanasia rate was well over 50%. In late 2013, I began taking pictures of the dogs, chained to their boxes. Most were cold, skinny and neglected. The shelter director at the time didn`t welcome visitors and surely did not like my presence there with a camera. I was told her lawyer would be contacted and that what I was doing was only making her have to answer as to why certain dogs weren`t there anymore after she euthanized them. Predictably, this didn`t go over well with us and It was well within my rights to take photos, especially if it was for the purpose of marketing the animals. There was little effort at the time to give the dogs and cats exposure on social media and we saw an opportunity to help the horrendous situation happening practically in our back yard.
Many of the early photos were sad and I came home with the same taste of defeat knowing I`d probably not see some of these poor dogs again. While going through the pictures I noticed something while looking at them that inspired me to do more. Through a simple image, just one click of the shutter, a story formed. In the eyes of each of these animals, there was desperation, apathy, or hope. I`d like to think that as we returned every weekend, more and more of these dogs started seeing hope. We accelerated our efforts and in the pictures it became more and more apparent that these dogs were trying to tell us that they needed help through their eyes, and that we were the ones to tell their story.
After a much-publicized court battle to remove the former director by the concerned and increasingly angry people of our county, the animals got the break they needed when a new director was named. This time, to the benefit of the four-legged ones, social media and volunteers were welcomed, and a new campaign to increase adoptions was set in place. The euthanasia rate was soon brought down to under 5%.
Many times when talk of the shelter comes up in conversation, we often hear people say, they just can`t go there. It`s upsets them too much. I understand what they mean, and I think they just don`t think about what they are saying, but after putting in time with the animals and knowing that anything you can do, big or small, means a world of difference to them, your sadness pales in comparison to what must be going through the minds of the lost and the lonely. The dogs and cats that have no home. If you can offer a tiny fraction of hope to them or take their mind away from the boredom for even an hour a week, it would help. Many times after I`ve taken pictures and my wife has gathered information about each one, we just spend time to get to know the dogs. We try to get a feeling of what kind of personality they have and what makes them happy.
This is Chief, a Siberian Husky. Many people don`t realize that 30% of the dogs in animal shelters across the country are purebred dogs.
We continue to visit our shelter every weekend. Some won`t understand and many will find it hard to believe that we look forward to it. It`s hard to explain in a way, but after your initial feelings of heartbreak, and after seeing our efforts to market them through higher public exposure pay off, something inside you shifts. A higher gear kicks in and you become inspired. A new motivation to find homes for all of them washes away the feelings of helplessness for their plight. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing one of the dogs or cats in their new home, curled up at someone`s feet or on a bed. When someone tells me it was my picture that ultimately got them a home, it`s a feeling like no other.
