honorable mention
kalen Sheng Fu united states
title
A Sheltered Life
Once abandoned or strayed without human care, the dogs would eventually suffer one of two fates: Roam the streets indefinitely and survive on whatever they can salvage from the streets (that’s if they get run-over by cars first), or get picked up and taken into a shelter; either private shelters operated by good Samaritans on limited man power and resources through donation like this one, or public shelters that are often almost always over-capacity and under-funded.
I randomly came across the story of this shelter online. Immediately I wanted to learn more about the working conditions of it and also get a better understanding of this social issue in general. The facility at the time housed roughly about 400~500 dogs. Aside from constantly being on call to retrieve and save new found strays, the husband & wife team that run the shelter pretty much devote their entire day on caring for every single dog on the premise, cleaning the facility multiple times a day, fundraising, and even playing vet and perform some basic check-up. And it’s all day everyday, 24/7/365. As I’ve been told, this is just one of many shelters of its kind throughout Taiwan.
Even though it was shot in Taiwan, animal abuse exists all around the world. My goal is to shine some light on the issue and create awareness around the world.
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entry description
This set of images were shot roughly 3 years ago on the grounds of a privately-run animal shelter in the rural parts of southern Taiwan during one of my travels to Asia. For multitude of unfortunate reasons, Taiwan as a society seems to have a high rate of domesticated animal abandonment and abuse of varying degrees. Strayed or homeless dogs/cats on the street, are often a common sight even in the major metropolitan areas.Once abandoned or strayed without human care, the dogs would eventually suffer one of two fates: Roam the streets indefinitely and survive on whatever they can salvage from the streets (that’s if they get run-over by cars first), or get picked up and taken into a shelter; either private shelters operated by good Samaritans on limited man power and resources through donation like this one, or public shelters that are often almost always over-capacity and under-funded.
I randomly came across the story of this shelter online. Immediately I wanted to learn more about the working conditions of it and also get a better understanding of this social issue in general. The facility at the time housed roughly about 400~500 dogs. Aside from constantly being on call to retrieve and save new found strays, the husband & wife team that run the shelter pretty much devote their entire day on caring for every single dog on the premise, cleaning the facility multiple times a day, fundraising, and even playing vet and perform some basic check-up. And it’s all day everyday, 24/7/365. As I’ve been told, this is just one of many shelters of its kind throughout Taiwan.
Even though it was shot in Taiwan, animal abuse exists all around the world. My goal is to shine some light on the issue and create awareness around the world.
back to gallery
