UNTLD. » animals

Antelope Island Balloon Festival

admin — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 14:00:27 +0000

And Kite festival in case its too windy for balloons. Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Pelicans

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:00:51 +0000

Green Dog Jake

admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 07:18:22 +0000

I am posting these pictures in honor of a friend of mine who is having to deal with doggy old age. It sucks. Totally sucks. It’s always too soon and always unfair. This is not her dog but I posted these from a recent assignment because thinking about her situation and how painful it must be for her to watch her dog deteriorate (and watching my dog’s limp appear more and more frequently and obviously more painful these days), I am reminded of how much dogs can really mean to us. And how they really do make our lives better on a daily basis. I love the subtle communication between Taos and Julie and I. (I think he reads us better than we read him). It seems as though we have our own language at times. I love how intune he is with us and how much he loves being included in our weird little world. It’s cliche and trite, but immeasurably true: Man’s Best Friend. Period. And yet when they want to be, they can be so much more than that.

Case in point this is Jake and he is a 10 year old rottweiler. Huge too as I found out after he playfully knocked me down several times. He is one of the elite dogs in this world that actively seek to make life better, not just for his owner/companion, not just for himself but for others. Other people that he doesn’t even know. He is a search and rescue dog who last year persisted in convincing the Sheriff’s dept. not to give up and keep looking further and further down river for the body of a child who had drowned. He was found 16 miles away. The Sheriff’s dept. (I am told) thought searching anywhere past 5 miles was worthless as his body could not travel that far away in a canal. This dog knew better. And his owner, Patti knew him well enough to believe what he was trying to communicate to everybody. She was the one to convince the Sheriff’s dept. on Jake’s behalf.

Recently, Jake has learned something more impressive. Something simple and yet impactful on a global scale. Something PEOPLE in our infinite wisdom and sophistication rarely ever do. He goes to the park, picks up the trash he finds and THROWS it away in the garbage bins. And he loves it. I would love to tell you that it’s because he is smarter than the average republican who still thinks climate change is fuzzy science. And hell I will even claim that too if nothing more than to raise the hackles of some repubs. But of course he doesn’t perceive the world like this. He doesn’t care and it doesn’t matter. He is still making a difference in the lives of others. In simple tasks and complicated ones that require a sophisticated level of communication.

And it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Jake is competing in the Today Show top dog competition this week. If you would like to learn more about Jake go here.

Dogs are nothing less than amazing creatures.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Abused Horse

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:41:56 +0000

Yesterday I got a horrible, horrible assignment. Not because it was boring, cliche or a P.R. ruse from some local business. Not because there were no photos to be had or something else that plagues daily work. It was horrible for the simple fact that it reminded me of how cruel and totally fucked people can be. I have wondered this often, or rhetorically asked Julie, and likewise I have heard her ask the same question, “Why are people so fucked up?” How can they do the things they do to each other or animals? And how can they be so callous, so unaffected by their own lack of humanity or wanton disregard for life in general? How can they be so bloody cruel?

At this point you may be asking, “What is he on about now?”

Yesterday, one of the reporters and I went out to Clinton to meet with a 17 year old kid, named Giovanni, whose 2 year old racing quarter horse had been brutally attacked the previous morning. The horse was in its own stall among twelve other horses that Giovanni and his father own. Someone broke in and beat the shit out of their race horse. They then took a broken garden tool with a hook on the end and stabbed the horse in the ankle, ripping tendons and rendering the horse incapable of ever racing again. Giovanni said that the veterinarian could stick his finger all the way into the hole someone had torn into the flesh of the animal and feel for himself the torn ligaments and severed tendons.

So there you go people. Maybe you can answer this for me. “Why in the bloody hell are people so cruel, so fucked up?”

The first photo is the one that ran on A1 today. Click on the photo for more.

Here is the link to the story if you are interested.

As always: questions, comments, complaints and concerns are appreciated. Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

“Six Geese a Laying. . . ” (in the Sunshine)

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:23:12 +0000

Alright they are standing in the Sunshine. And there are seven of them. But what did you want this blog post to be titled, “Geese?” Nah. That is boring and this photo needs all the help it can get. This wasn’t for an assignment or anything but while I was at Weber State this morning walking back to my truck I saw these birds hanging out in the sun, snow and an empty parking stall in an otherwise full lot. They might have been there holding the spot for a friend. Anyway, it just caught my eye that’s all. As always, thank for looking.

Cheers,

More pups

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:54:03 +0000

More dog pics. I had an assignment to photograph a pit bull because of a new city ordinance that is more restrictive of owning pit bulls.

Click photo for more.