Why Some Shelters Don’t Care About Their Photos?

I'm always confused why some shelters say, "No, we don't need a photographer" or "can't you just quickly take the photo in their kennel?"

I'm a pet photographer willing to donate my time, why don't you care about the quality of photo I take?

I do understand some animal shelters already have a photographer who they're loyal to. As soon as I know that, I back off immediately.

I'm not saying I'm so amazing and they should be lucky to have me, but any photographer would be better than the blurry cell phone photos most shelters post. 

I understand photographing cats in their kennel. A larger room could be unavailable and they can be tricky to transport from room to room. I'm typically more understanding with photographing cats in their kennel, but I still try and avoid it. 

When you're photographing an animal in their kennel, they feel trapped and they'll look scared in the photo and this isn't how we want them presented to potential adopters.

I'd rather take them out of the kennels, so my camera isn't directly in their face. They have room to move, play, run, and do whatever else they need to feel comfortable. This gives adopters an idea of the animal's personality rather than a scared photo of them. 

It took me a lot of time to figure out that the animal shelters who don't care about their photos just have a lot more people coming in, so the dogs (who make most the money for shelters) go quickly. This makes having a great photo of the animal kind of pointless. They may be on Petfinder for a day or two with a nice photo, but it was the adopter who walked into the shelter randomly who adopted them.

But what about the other animals?

Unfortunately, they get the short end of the stick when shelters don't care about their photos. Overall the dogs who get adopted quickly are making the shelter a lot more money and they need money to stay open.

There are some animal shelters who care deeply about their photos, and there are some who bring in a photographer for those animals having a difficult time getting adopted.

Next time you're looking for a new dog or cat on petfinder take the time to look at all the animals. Don't just go for the "pretty ones."