Photographer and animal lover Emma O’Brien had put together an exhibition dedicated to pure breeds in the rescue realm, and she made it so your pets can join!
Johannesburg, South Africa (11 April 2022) – Emma O’Brien is a portrait photographer specialising in human and animal photography. She is a champion for animal rescue and decided to use her talent to promote some underrated shelter animals; now, she is putting on an exhibition to showcase the rescues and pets she has captured.
She has donated her talent to several animal welfare groups to help photograph the long-term residents and hard-to-adopt-out animals.
Emma loves photographing black shelter animals as they are considered hard-to-adopt-out. After doing some research, she found that black shelter animals have the slowest rate of adoption and the highest rate of euthanasia. The first time we featured Emma, she had asked rescue pet owners who had adopted black shelter animals if she could photograph their happy faces. The hope was to try to help boost the adoption rates of black animals in South Africa. The second time we featured Emma, she was photographing dogs up for adoption at CLAW.
Now Emma is compiling her love of photographing rescues and putting on an exhibition. The exhibition is also going to be pet-friendly! The exhibition is called “Dogs Unleashed” and will be held in Rosebank, Johannesburg. While Emma loves all breeds, mixed and pure, this showcase will look at the pure breeds that find themselves unwanted.
‘My aim with this series is to demonstrate that it’s not just mixed breed mutts who find themselves at shelters. Purebred dogs also end up unwanted and in need of new homes. If you’ve got a favourite dog breed, I guarantee you’ll be able to find one you can adopt.’
According to the website, even the most pedigreed of dogs often end up in need of new homes, and there is a dedicated rescue organisation (or two) for pretty much every breed you can think of.
Pedigree dogs find themselves in ‘rescue’ for a variety of reasons, the predominant ones being:
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A lack of understanding about a specific breed’s requirements
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They are no longer of use to a breeder
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Puppy mill breeders being closed down or going out of business
Some of the dogs featured in this exhibition have been in multiple homes because they were not given the exercise, training or specific attention their breed requires (Leila the Bluetick Coonhound has been in seven different homes, Eddie the Beagle & Gunther the Great Dane have been in four). Many are ‘retired’ breeding dogs on the senior side of life (Mia the Beagle, Linka the Vizsla, Maverick the Toy Poodle, Queenie the Chihuahua & Lisa the Schnauzer, to name a few). The rest found themselves unwanted or abandoned.
The dogs featured have thankfully all found their forever homes now, and each image will have a story, sharing the dog’s history and more about the family they live with now.
Just a note, if you do take your beloved dog with you, your dog needs to be well-socialised with humans and other dogs, have good manners and be on a lead. The exhibition will run from the 11th to the 24th of April, with the pet-friendly weekends taking place on the 15th to 18th of April and 23rd to 24th of April 2022.
If you want more information about the event, you can find out via the website here.
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