"Dallas Vice Squad Uncovers Love for Sale at Buckner and Forney
Roads"
"Dallas Firefighters Rescue Brother and Sister at Buckner and Forney
Roads"
"Dallas Streets and Sanitation Crew Picks Up Litter at Buckner and
Forney Roads"
Sounds like the intersection of Buckner and Forney Roads is a busy place. But
the people who work at a city animal shelter want it to get busier.
The shelter, which devised the ad campaign using newspaper-style headlines,
has a large selection of adoptable animals but very few visitors who adopt them.
As a result, nearly 19,000 animals are euthanized by the city each year.
"Our adoption numbers are very, very low," says Andrea Allen, vice
chair of the Dallas Animal Shelter Commission, a city advisory board.
"People just don't realize that we have great pets for adoption and the
best selection."
The ad campaign, inspired by a similar one in Chicago, is an attempt to raise
the visibility of the Forney Road shelter and another city shelter near the
Dallas Zoo.
The ads were put on DART buses in the spring and are about to be mounted
again on the buses for the fall and winter holiday season.
The people in the pictures are real city employees, and the animals were
taken from the shelter.
"It's difficult to get volunteers on the weekend, so I volunteered
myself," says Capt. Kenneth Johnson of the Dallas Fire Department. "I
thought we'd go down, hold a dog and take my picture."
Instead, the shoot took hours, with makeup, a professional hair stylist and
dozens of photos being taken.
"They took 40 to 50 pictures, and those dogs got heavy, and we were
dripping with sweat in our uniforms," Capt. Johnson says.
The makeup was a new experience for him: "If it wasn't for a worthy
cause, I wouldn't have wanted to do that."
Pam McKissick, a supervisor with the city's streets and sanitation services,
says they were "lured" to the photo shoot by the chance to play with
puppies and kittens.
"It was fun," she says. "It was a real opportunity."
The ad campaign was sponsored by the Metroplex Animal Coalition, a group of
nonprofit shelters and humane societies.
E-mail amckenzie@dallasnews.com
