The dark side of working with Dogs

Besides my photography I do dog rehabilitation and owner training. I volunteer at Denkai Animal Shelter, working with some of the most wonderful dogs you could ever hope to meet. And last Tuesday I was blessed to meet 13 more. Unfortunately, it wasn't under the best of circumstances.

Forgive me if I get the details wrong - a shelter director in Wyoming contacted Denkai about a breeder/hoarder (not sure which) that was giving up about 17-18 puppies, ages 2 and 6 months. The Wyoming shelter took charge of all but the 13 that came here. Now, I've seen worse cases on shows like "Animal Cops *******" (name your favorite city), but these poor things (12 males, 1 female) had it bad enough.

I was asked to photograph the intake, documenting each step in the process, from bathing and inspecting to spaying and neutering once they were cleaned up.

You can view the complete set of pictures on my flickr site, but here's a few that touch me the most. This experience has borne a mixture of feelings, from compassion for these poor things, to joy that they're in good hands, and finally outrage that we as a species have within ourselves the capacity for such cruelty.

A couple things, in case you didn't know: when dogs get real frightened, their eyes will dilate till they're almost completely black, and they tend to shut down and stare straight ahead. Given the trauma these little guys have gone through it's no wonder...

With my deepest respect:

We're supposed to be the smarter species...