Fort Mill, South Carolina Photographer Posts Individual Shelter Dog Portrait Photos for 365 Consecutive Days to Raise Awareness of Homeless Animals in the United States
The goal of the 365 campaign is to raise awareness about the number of animals in the shelters. Each day for one year I post a new and unique photo of a dog taken at an animal shelter. Many of these dogs were adopted from the shelter or sent to a rescue organization. Some were euthanized at the shelter.
Donate. Foster. Adopt.
The Reality of Animals in Shelters
In my head I have debated whether to publish this photo 1,000 times. It’s graphic. It’s hard to look at. The photographer in me says no way. Why put this out in the world? We’re exposed to suffering every day. 320,000 Americans dead today of COVID. The United States is torn apart, families and neighbors across the country misunderstanding and mistrusting each other with deadly consequences. Poverty, unemployment and hunger plague not only the United States but the world. Why should I publish one more reminder of how cruel we can be to those less capable or fortunate?
The news reporter in me asks what is the point, really, of 365 Shelter Dogs? To post cute photos in the hopes that people consider rescuing dogs instead of buying them? Certainly. But at the expense of completely disregarding the reality of these animals’ true conditions and fates?
Over the years I’ve photographed 1,000’s of rescue and/ or shelter dogs, both as a news photographer and as charitable act. I’m as sensitive as anyone to their suffering. But to do my job I cannot indulge in pity. The way that is possible is to emotionally detach from my subjects.
I go, meet the animal, dress them up, get them to behave in a way that conveys whatever humans determine is worthy of visual attention and do so quickly to photograph as many animals as possible in the shortest amount of time. To do otherwise would be doing them a disservice. They need my skills and my experience, not my pity. My pity is mine to loathe on my own time.
I post this today because for once, for 1 out of 365 times, I feel it’s necessary to convey not only the cute, perfect fur balls that end up homeless through no fault of their own but also to acknowledge the less fortunate animals- the abused and the neglected. For progress it is important to recognize and admit that we have a problem as a society.
Hope is a strong driver and crucial counter to despair. Honesty is the first step towards change.
This dog was humanely euthanized the day after I photographed him. May he RIP.
