I went to the vet today for my guinea pig and this painting was there. I think this is very true, even talking county wise. Miami-Dade county doesn't fund the animal shelter as much as it should. The shelter raises more than 75% of its funds by the adoption fees and donations. This isn't enough to support the animal shelter. When I drive around I see them beautifying the city and doing unnecessary things with the money. I could name millions of things that this money could go to. Like the animal shelter. Some cities fund their animal shelters well, while the majority don't. It isn't fair.

For my book I wanted to do both big dogs and adult cats, but with my title I don't think it would work out as good. The cats in the shelter are in cages inside rooms, like the smaller dogs are, they aren't behind a 'chain linked fence' like the proposed title of my book is going to be.

Adult cats have a higher euthanasia rate than dogs, puppies, and kittens. No one usually wants an adult cat. This being said I might do a whole other book on cats, the title that I'm thinking would be 'down to the last life' since cats have 9 lives, and in the shelter they are down to their last one.

Selina #A1410213

I am overloading myself with work, because I have school and work, but I think it is worth it.

I went to the shelter on Friday, which was the tenth of this month. It had been a week since I last was at the shelter. I saw some of the same beautiful animals that were there last Friday, a few of them got adopted, one that I know got sent to a rescue up north and the others, well I guess they got put down. It breaks my heart because so many of these dogs were sweethearts.

Sandy #A1412743

While I was there, this man dropped off his dog; later I found out the reason... it was because his kids were doing bad in school. That poor dog never did anything wrong, and he got punished. I don't have a picture of him, but he got adopted the same day. :)

People are cruel. We domesticated these animals... and now we are leaving them off in the streets to fend for themselves when we took those instincts away many years ago.

The Project

For my digital media class I needed to do a community project and document it in some way. After a lot of contemplating I decided I was going to work with the Miami-Dade Animal Services and take photographs of the animals. At first I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do with my photos, but I finally decided to make it into a book (along with a blog) with some possible stories of the animals, their names, and if they get adopted, the adoption stories. Also another possibility is showing them before and after; before being locked up in a cage, and after outside enjoying human contact. I decided for my first book I will focus on the animals in their cages. I am thinking of titling it something like "Behind The Chain Linked Fence." It will show people how many dogs are locked up because of us and how sad and lonely they look. I will still include theirs names and ID numbers though. I will be trying to raise money for the shelter by selling the books.

Sassy #A1412495

I am planning on carrying this out for as long as I can, because my passion is animals and I've always wanted to work with them somehow in my career, so photographing them in a shelter is a great way to start! Plus, it helps them as well.