Sway passed away 4 years ago today. Thank you for enriching people’s lives and making a positive difference. You were the best dog in the world and I love you and miss you every day.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone, offended with my specific criticism of a shelter, say things like:
“You have no idea how hard it is for shelter staff to put animals to sleep.”
“How dare you criticize a shelter from behind a keyboard.”
“You don’t know what it’s like to be on the ground.”
“Why don’t you do something instead of just attacking those who work tirelessly in the animal sheltering industry?”
You get the picture.

I guess many of these people don’t know that I actually spend a lot of time at shelters. To them I’d like to say this…

What’s hard is having an open heart.
What’s hard is witnessing first-hand the relinquishment of a pet.
What’s hard is talking to its owner, and telling them that they will kill your dog, and have it not faze them.
What’s hard is having the same scenario play out, and have it break them down, but still see them leave their dog because they’ve come to the conclusion that they have no other option.
What’s hard is genuinely sitting with a shelter dog and looking into its eyes.
What’s hard is bonding with them, petting them, rubbing their bellies, feeding them treats.
What’s hard is watching them try to squeeze so hard up against the bars, just to get another centimeter closer to you, and they can’t.
What’s hard is watching them play bow, and wiggle back and forth, and you not be able to reciprocate the fun or fully engage them back.
What’s hard is seeing them come to recognize you, and then get excited when you approach.
What’s hard is having to eventually get up and move on to the next cage.
What’s hard is seeing how beautiful and loving they are, how forgiving and optimistic they are, and then seeing them locked in a cage.
What’s hard is telling the dogs that they are a “good boy” or a “good girl,” and knowing that so many times they’ve likely sat at those bars and watched countless people pass without a care in the world.
What’s hard is telling the dogs to “be strong,” knowing where they are and what they are up against.
What’s hard is running with them in the play yard, and seeing them free, and then having to put them back.
What’s hard is potentially confusing them.
What’s hard is having to get in your car and drive away to go back home.
What’s hard is knowing every dog by face and name, and not knowing if they are going to be alive the next day.
What’s hard is sitting on the telephone, awaiting to be told a dog’s fate.
What’s hard is knowing how many services I could actually offer the shelter, offering those services, and then not being given the opportunity to provide those services.
What’s hard is loving every single animal inside of a specific shelter, and knowing that the manager and certain members of a staff actually view you as an enemy.
What’s hard is living in America and feeling like the use of one’s freedom of speech and expression is a crime.
What’s hard is seeing a shelter staff worry more about their public perception than the fate of the countless dogs and cats that they are supposed to be sheltering.
What’s hard is knowing that there is definitely a better way than just endlessly killing.
What’s hard is having that way routinely ignored, never attempted and constantly misrepresented by the people that are actually in a position to attempt it.
What’s hard is seeing all of the Pit Bulls be discriminated against in numerous different ways.
What’s hard is learning that a dog was killed because it was deemed “unadoptable” or “aggressive,” and knowing that this is a blatant lie.
What’s hard is seeing shelter workers get desensitized.
What’s hard is seeing wonderful volunteers and members of the public erroneously fear-mongered.
What’s hard is seeing a shelter manager lack compassion and empathy.
What’s hard is having the vindictiveness of certain shelter managers thrown in your face routinely.
What’s hard is not being able to properly network a dog’s photo on your own Facebook page out of fear that that shelter’s manager will see it and kill the dog in retaliation.
What’s hard is knowing that that’s already happened many times.
What’s hard is seeing a dog come in and then be killed as soon as it’s available to be killed.
What’s hard is knowing more about a dog’s personality than the staff allocated to decide whether it should be killed or not.
What’s hard is seeing shelters constantly hide behind liability.
What’s hard is seeing shelters excuse their lack of innovation for lack of resources.
What’s hard is having to deal with hypocrisy, inconsistencies and technicalities on a daily basis.
What’s hard is having to stay focused, and continue putting the effort forth in the face of mass killing and sadness.
What’s hard is having to take time away from visiting with the dogs in order to actually get good photographs.
What’s hard is doing something for 5 hours that realistically should take 2.
What’s hard is coming home and spending the next 15 hours straight editing photographs and/or video.
What’s hard is seeing the overwhelming nature of all of the pictures as a whole render the few people that want to help helpless.
What’s hard is putting pictures up and not having them get the support and networking power that you’d hope they would get.
What’s hard is having to try again.
What’s hard is doing an endless amount of work and not being paid for it.
What’s hard is seeing my girlfriend, who is now a volunteer, cry every single night.
What’s hard is sitting in the dark in front of my computer, editing pictures, and wondering how the dog who is in front of me is doing.
What’s hard is sitting in silence, and having their faces fill my thoughts.
What’s hard is knowing how much of the population simply isn’t even aware that shelters kill.
What’s hard is knowing how much good we could all do if we could simply be honest with one another.
What’s hard is being told that I am a jerk for opposing killing, and that I should feel bad for the people that actually have and make the choice to kill.
What’s hard is having to deal with the shelter apologists that have long sold their principles down the river.
What’s hard is constantly writing about all of the things that Pit Bulls are up against in this world.
What’s hard is dealing with the ignorance.
What’s hard is dealing with the hate.
What’s hard is continuing to go.
What’s hard is continuing to have an open heart.

So don’t talk to me about what is hard.

At the same time, everything that I’ve listed as “hard” is also easy, because I love doing it for these dogs in the hopes that it makes a difference. I love these dogs. That is also hard and that is also easy. There is absolutely nothing in the world more rewarding than when it makes a difference for 1 of them.

Activist and fundraiser Dan Pallotta calls out the double standard that drives our broken relationship to charities. Too many nonprofits, he says, are rewarded for how little they spend and not for what they get done.

I had Neola down at the ocean yesterday for the first time since her initial attempt at doing Splash Dogs. There’s these little pockets of still sitting water down there, almost like a pool, that are 3-4 feet deep. To my total surprise she went right into the water and started swimming in circles. I didn’t have to prompt her at all, 100% her own curiosity and trust in her own ability to swim. It was the cutest thing in the world. She kept looking back at me to make sure that I was still there, and for approval, and she just kept going and going. This is a dog that normally isn’t a fan of the ocean, doesn’t like to get a bath, is terrified of the water hose from the yard and of the spray bottle. And now she’s a willing swimmer? Yes she is, apparently.

If you’d like to take and submit your own picture (high resolution) of a kiss fest that you’re having with your own Pit Bull/mix (or with them kissing other people or other dogs) then I’d love to include it in a series of YouTube videos that will carry the text tag line on each image. Please send any pictures to: josh@swaylove.org and be sure to share this request with other friends!

In my opinion this is one of the most important videos I’ve ever made. Yes, it is a rant. But yes, it is very important. If you are a volunteer, rescuer, shelter staff member or even a manager then please consider what is being said here.

City Council meetings for San Bernardino are the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month, the next being 1/21. Councilman John Valdivia oversees the ward where the shelter is located.
To email the San Bernardino City shelter supervisor, Ryan Long: long_ry@sbcity.org

City Council meetings for Rancho Cucamonga are the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month, the next being 1/16.
To email the Rancho Cucamonga City Council: council@cityofrc.us
To email the Rancho Cucamonga shelter director, Veronica Fincher: veronica.fincher@cityofrc.us

L.A. County, to the best of my knowledge, doesn’t do City Council meetings. You’d instead need to go directly to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, also known as “the 5 little kings.” They appointed Marcia Mayeda, who oversees all of the county shelters, including Carson. She was responsible for firing Ric Browde, head volunteer at Baldwin Park, simply because he voiced his own opinion on his personal blog.
To email the director of the L.A. County DACC, Marcia Mayeda: mmayeda@animalcare.lacounty.gov

Original Facebook thread showing Lucia (embedded rope).
Video #1 of the SB City kennel mates, Lucia (embedded rope) & Britta.
Video #2 of the SB City kennel mates, Lucia (embedded rope) & Britta.
Video taken while shelter staff informs Maria that she now needs to do public records requests to obtain a report she was freely receiving prior to 1/5/13.

Shelter retaliation against volunteers is illegal, unconstitutional.
Retaliatory Rancho Cucamonga shelter spiraling downward.

This morning my girlfriend got an email from a co-worker who yesterday found an extremely injured Pit Bull. Thankfully she went into action and did what any wonderful person would do. I’m not going to detail it anymore than that, as you can just read her amazing email (below) that she sent out on Zena’s behalf. If you’d like to donate, anything at all, towards Zena’s care: Please call it directly into the veterinarian’s office that is listed below. Big thanks to HyunJoo for being an amazing person, and thank you to anyone that will donate and/or spread this story. Zena needs all the help that she can get!

Dear Friends, I need your help.

On Friday at 6:30am, while walking Lucy and Buttons, I found a 7 month old Pit Bull-mix that had been hit by a car. I don’t know how long she was on the street, but her body was frozen cold, her nose and mouth bleeding, and car marks and blood all over her body. When I knelt and talked to her, she picked up her broken body and walked towards me.

With amazing guidance from the Eagle Rock emergency room (I think she was my guardian angel that morning! Thank you “Z”!), I got her to the emergency room. The staff on call did a diagnostic of her free of charge, and told me to get her started at Gateway (my vet) as they were going to be open very soon. By this time it was 7:30am. Zena was such a trooper. She was broken, in every way possible, but wagged her tail when the emergency room vet touched her, and laid down submissively in the waiting room, relieved to be in a warm, dry place.

Dr. Jimerson and the wonderful staff at Gateway quickly took her in. It turned out that she had a broken bone in her face, a broken wrist, one collapsed lung, nerve damage to her right front shoulder and leg, and possible brain injury. We believe she was hit, very hard, to her front right side (face and shoulder). I left her in Dr. Jimerson’s hands and thank God, as the hours passed, she was getting stronger and stronger. I went back to visit her Friday afternoon and was told that her front leg had a fracture on the wrist that should heal nicely with a cast, the bone in her face that had broken was also a clean fracture and will heal by itself, she had not fallen into a coma (which was what Dr. Jimerson was afraid of, given she was hit in the head), and she was alert and responding very well to the medication. The best news: She would most likely heal without any surgery and the nerve damage did not seem permanent hence we would not have to amputate her leg. What a miracle.

Zena is currently at Gateway for the weekend so they can continue to monitor her. If all goes as planned this weekend, she will get a cast on Monday which I will then bring her home with me. She will be with me for 6-8 weeks or until her leg is fully healed.

I feel so humbled and privileged to have come across Zena. Having 2 dogs of my own, I hope kind strangers would also extend their love if they are ever in such a awful situation. I have a gut feeling that Zena will make a full recover and have a thriving and full life. She has power in her eyes and I believe that this traumatic experience will only make her stronger.

I am emailing to you to ask for your help. As you can imagine, the financial cost will be high and steady. I have committed to paying for everything up to Monday’s treatment, but am asking for donations to ensure that Zena makes a 100% recovery over the next 2 months. Specifically, she needs weekly visits to the vet for her cast, another series of x-rays, and pain medication/vitamins/antibiotics. My goal is to hopefully raise $500. If you would like and can contribute to “Zena’s Holiday Fund,” please contact Gateway at 323-256-5840, tell them that you are calling to make a donation, and give them my name (HyunJoo Lee). They can take your card number over the phone. You can also drop off/mail them checks to: 431 West Los Feliz Rd., Glendale CA 91204. Please write “donation for HyunJoo Lee” at the memo line.

I also need your help find Zena a forever home. She is an amazing animal who is extremely affectionate. And obviously, she is a fighter. She is around 7-8 months old, 47 lbs (meaning she will be a big dog), and may be a Pit Bull/Labrador-mix. If you know of anyone who can commit to her and ensuring that she has a healthy, active, and fulfilling life, please contact me.

Attached are some pictures of her. She looks so much better now because the swelling in her face has gone down considerably. I will send updates and pictures to donors so please let me know if you make a donation.

Please spread the word to your friends and networks. Zena, Lucy, Buttons, and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Happy holidays!!

Every Monday in December I’m going to be releasing 2 new t-shirts that I’ve designed that feature very special Pit Bulls from my life…

Here’s my best buddy and the heart of all of this, Sway. My life, literally. I loved this dog more than anything in the world, she loved me the same.
Click here to read a little more in depth about Sway.
Click here to purchase one of these shirts.

And here’s the beautiful Junior, who was rescued from the Carson shelter in 2011 and suffered a tragic end after touching so many people. This dog was terrific and I’ll miss him, like I’ll miss Sway, forever.
Click here to read a little more in depth about Junior.
Click here to purchase one of these shirts.

During the month of December I’m going to try and do a rather large online fundraiser for this cause, for giving these shelter animals a more constant presence, for expanding what I’m personally capable of, for providing better everything. I need help, and after 2 years I’m going to be asking for it… Not for a dog, not for a specific “rescue,” but for me personally. It’s easier for a big rescue to do something like this, or a 501c3, because they are essential organizations that do wonderful things. But I’ve purposefully opted not to become a 501c3 so that my opinion can be totally unchained, not beholden to anyone or anything.

There’s so much that I want SwayLove.org to do, and so much more that I know SwayLove.org can do for Pit Bulls, for shelter dogs. I’ve thought a lot about it. While recognizing all of this in my own head, I’m finding it hard to go to the next level because I just lack both time and money. Everything I’ve ever given is my own time and my own money, much of which has been debt.

I want to do this MORE. I want to do this BETTER. SwayLove.org can be way better, more hardcore, more expansive in media and more consistently on the ground at more shelters. I want this, want it bad. If the fundraiser turns out not to work out, it won’t change anything. My heart is in this for a reason, and I will continue giving all that I can, all that I have going forward. But it doesn’t hurt to ask, to map out goals and try to obtain them, to get creative with putting the shelters on blast. This site has thankfully obtained an awesome and engaged and powerful group of people. What I do doesn’t go anywhere without people to hear it, people to see it, people to share it, people to be effected by it. I’ve thankfully got so many wonderful people that support this website. It’s awesome. I’m sorry that I have to lean on you a little bit. Hopefully you’ll agree with me. Here is my hope, followed by my many ideas for 2013…

I’d love to raise $10,000 over the next month. As I type this I have 8,894 people that have “liked” my Facebook page. Just for comparisons sake: That means that if everyone who has liked my page donated $1.12 we’d get to that amount. Now obviously the majority of people that make up the 8,894 will probably never even see this post, so that’s certainly a pie in the sky way of getting to $10,000. But I think it’s attainable with the generosity of so many great people, and I’d hope that after reading my many ideas for the $, that you’d consider it a worthy way of giving a donation.

1) The requesting of very thorough public records requests from every major shelter in southern California… L.A. County (Agoura, Baldwin Park, Carson, Castaic, Downey, Lancaster), L.A. City (North Central, South L.A., East Valley, West Valley, West L.A., Harbor), Santa Monica, Hawthorne, Long Beach, Orange County, Devore, San Bernardino City, Redlands, Pasadena, Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside, Blythe, Coachella Valley, San Jacinto, Animal Friends of the Valleys, Corona. I’d want 5 year results and I’ll be smarter in approach than I was with my first go-around with Carson. This will likely be very costly (although it shouldn’t), as each location request will be a separate attempt. Not to mention the time and tedious effort it will take for me to go through the responses and re-organize them, breaking them down into new documents. I mention it “shouldn’t” be costly, being that it’s certainly within our legal rights to see these documents, but alas, these shelters like to jerk you around and it ended up costing me $48 for 1 lousy sheet of paper regarding the Carson shelter records that I requested from earlier this year.

2) The purchasing of domain names (.com addresses) which will house separate websites: The 1st to specifically target L.A. County directer, Marcia Mayeda’s track record. The 2nd to specifically target the Carson shelter, which will consistently make public their kill numbers and since I have most of my experiences at this facility. And the 3rd to be a multimedia publishing-hub that’s used to show the kill numbers (as well as all other performance categories) for every southern California shelter, based from the public records requests that I am aiming to obtain from each shelter. Why websites? The internet is by far and away the best tool that exists. These will be simple and to the point websites that will have a cleanly designed layout that is heavy on informational access. The website names will be catchy and blunt, easily picked up by Google and all other search engines, and a way to forever attach the amount of death with the people and places who are presiding over it.

3) The looking into doing 1 major newspaper advertisement centered around the bringing of awareness to the routine shelter killings that are happening in Los Angeles, or multiple advertisements with the same goal put out in smaller publications. The major newspapers can be extremely expensive when trying to place a decent-sized ad within, but there also may be a hookup out there to be found. I don’t know.

4) The creation of a Pit Bull-specific informational multi-page zine that will include facts, stats, myths, questions and resources within. It will be designed by me, purposely printed in black and white and able to be copied on any copy machine with little loss of quality. I’d shoot to get at least 1,000 of these physically printed and out into circulation around the area, plus I’d make it downloadable from my website for others to do the same.

5) The creation of a few large SwayLove.org vinyl banners for booth publicity if I’m ever to branch out and start attending a few community events, which I’d actually like to…

6) The purchasing of much needed equipment:
Panasonic HC-V100 HD handheld camera, $300.
GoPro Hero2, $300.
Zoom H2 table microphone, $280.
Azden WMS-Pro wireless microphone system, $200.
Possibly a new lens for my SLR camera.
This will help me tremendously in being able to continue striving to create interesting, high quality pieces of media (photographs, video) for both the networking of shelter dogs and for Pit Bull education and commentary.

7) The focusing on creating numerous high quality educational videos, online short-docs centered on discrimination, media sensationalism, use of force by police, true kill shelter realities, true bite statistics, odds of dying, mentality of fear in society, exposés of hatemongers, examination of Breed-discriminatory legislation, as well as showing the true nature of the Pit Bull, promoting common sense, individual basis reaction vs. group punishment reaction, a shelter photography how-to, promotional videos with audience (and dog) participation, those kinds of things… Not to mention that I want to meet and interview many awesome people for these pieces and for others.

8) The ordering of some wholesale bumper stickers, business cards, the designing of further shirts, the creating of a selling mechanism that allows some of my shelter prints to be ordered online.

9) Help with covering any potential travel I may consider doing to do aforementioned interviews, possibly attend another big conference, maybe visit an out of state shelter or two (I’d love to visit Austin, TX or one of the high-kill shelters in New York City).

These are just some of the ideas that I have right now for the upcoming year. I’m also planning on revamping and very much expanding my website, writing more, as well as possibly creating a video podcasting channel where people could Skype in and communicate about whatever they choose to. But the main and overriding plus for me is that this would give me more time and financial flexibility to do what I genuinely love to do. It would be a drastic help, which would in turn be (I’d hope) a drastic help to some dogs as well. I honestly can’t overstate how helpful it would be for me. I’m just a regular person who pays everything from a $5 dog collar to a $500 camera lens out of my own pocket. When I visit a shelter and shoot photographs of their Pit Bulls, well, I’m usually then up for the next 12 hours or so editing the pictures. I honestly don’t want to be pulled away from this kind of stuff for another job. Instead, I’d ideally want to make this more and more of my “job” going forward. I really want more time to dedicate to making these things a genuine reality. With appropriated money not only comes more options, but more time. Some slight flexibility goes a long way. Thank you so much for reading, and for potentially helping.

Josh

You can see some of my photography here, and here, and here, and here, and here. You can see some of my videos here.

Important reads…
Five years post-rescue!
Vick dogs: Five years post-seizure. Has the cruelty ended?