Ever since she was a child, Jo-Anne McArthur has had a soft spot for animals. At 11, she noticed a barking rottweiler mix locked in a nearby backyard. "[His family] didn't have time to walk him, and he needed to run and play, like any kid," says Jo-Anne, who promptly asked the owners if she could take him for regular walks around her Ottawa neighbourhood. And she happily remembers being "yanked down the street by this huge dog going nuts with his freedom."
So began a long friendship with Duke, the dog, and a love affair with all creatures great and small that has inspired Jo-Anne, now 28, to help needy, neglected and abused animals ever since. "I have to do something," says the globe-trotting photographer, who lives in Toronto with her partner, Adam, and the dog and four budgies that she adopted from the Toronto Humane Society.
Sharing her experiences through photography
Jo-Anne has come up with a rewarding way to combine her love of travel with her passion for animals and her profession. A monkey chained to a windowsill in Ecuador showed her how her camera could make a difference. Trained to pick the pockets of passersby, "this poor little monkey was spending his life like that," says Jo-Anne. She took his picture and continues to photograph the animals she sees on travels through countries such as India, Peru and Turkey, where animal neglect and human poverty often coexist. Jo-Anne's pictures become part of her ongoing photo essay, "We Animals."
In an annual fall exhibit that Jo-Anne arranges, her pictures also serve another purpose: the arresting images of animals shown in what she calls a "human context" -- a starving dog foraging at a garbage dump, a fish tank inside a seafood restaurant -- raise funds that Jo-Anne donates to animal-aid organizations. Patrons can buy framed prints or, for a smaller donation, take home postcards.
Click here to find out about volunteering for your local animal shelter.
