Inside Their Eyes: Shelter Dog Portraits

Something lovely has been happening in Tuscola, Illinois at the Douglas County Animal Control and Shelter.

Her brother and sister-in-law, Kirby and Cindy Pringle, are professional photographers with a deep fondness for animals, and have begun volunteering at their local animal shelter by photographing the shelter dogs. The shelter then posts the animals' photographs on their Facebook page, along with adoption details.

Whippet, photograph by Dogtown Artworks

What seems like every day, another elegant photograph of a recent addition to the shelter is posted, which becomes a rather disheartening situation because the photography is beautiful but another animal-in-need is not.

As the Facebook page unfolds itself, it is simultaneously becoming a sort of online art gallery.  A gallery that testifies to the bond between dog and human, and the effects the loss of such a relationship has on our dog-friends.

Often, adoption photographs of shelter dogs feature them in the kennels, behind chain-link fence or wire, and the cages often act as a barrier between the viewer and dog, thus causing the dogs to seem as though they deserve to be there--since the nature of the cage is to confine, to isolate, to keep what must be dangerous out.  

Brindle-Mix, photograph by Dogtown Artworks

These non-traditional adoption ads allow the dogs to communicate to the viewers with dignity.  Here, the dogs are allowed to show themselves outside of the fence, in the way that animals at shelters would if they weren't there.

A shelter is--at least for the ones she has visited--an often anxious, stressed environment that would drive anyone, dog or human, into rattling their cages, staring off, or barking despondently, no matter how friendly their hearts and sweet their temperaments outside the cage.

But shelter behavior, of course, is often enough to make the potential adopter move onto the next kennel, and the next (often past the adult dogs and toward the puppies), or maybe just out the door.

These are empowering photographs, and a beautiful testament to the power of art and the power of the bond between ourselves and our dogs.  Together, the world of longing and love is put into better focus.

These are our undesirables.  But the Pringles are showing us how to see them as they are: full of desire.

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To view more of the dogs at the Douglas County Adoption, 

or for information about volunteering or donating, 

please visit their Facebook page.

For more information about the photographers, 

see their website, Dogtown Artworks.

Three puppies at Douglas County Shelter,
photographs by Dogtown Artworks