animals in cages

So, here is the story, if you have been reading my blog at all, we did a story on this a few months back. The local county animal shelters have real problems. A study (a few months ago) reported that the animals aren't being cared for properly. So, this was running the day before the new study was going to come out reporting on the conditions. And the projection was looking up for the shelters.

First of all, I have a general issue with running pictures of animals in cages. Because I believe you are playing on people's emotions. For the most part, people love animals. If you ever check out MSNBC pictures of the week. The winners? if there is a cute animal picture part of the mix, it almost always wins.

So, running a cute animal looking all sad in a cage, through bars is playing on people's emotions. So, when I was doing the a1 handoff---this picture that ran lead---get's the "awwww" from different people.

Is that wrong? No, but I think it proves the point that you feel bad and sorry for the thing. I don't see how that helps tell the story at all.

So, I voice my opinion and felt like I was well-heard, but over-ruled. So, little sad doggy runs on the cover. We get swamped with phone calls from the public all wanting to save Fido from the evil animal shelter.