That has been demonstrated dramatically once again this past week with the series “Destined to Die,” which reported that 22,000 dogs and cats were euthanized locally last year. The three-part series — with a follow-up today — chronicled how the killing of unwanted animals has been on the rise at Indianapolis shelters while it has dropped in other communities nationwide.
We have received several hundred calls, e-mails and letters about the series, with at least two-thirds reacting positively to our reporting efforts.
Virtually all the negative responses (and even some of the positive callers) focused on last Sunday’s picture, on an inside page, of barrels filled with carcasses of dead dogs.
Readers characterized the picture as “too graphic,” “disgusting,” “unnecessary,” “sensationalized” and “irresponsible journalism.”
“Why did you run that picture? It made me sick to my stomach,” said Dorothy Howard of rural Anderson. “Instead of the dogs being punished, the people who owned them should be punished.”
Even the Humane Society’s executive director, Marsha Spring, said during a news conference responding to the series that The Star should be ashamed of running that photo and other photos and video showing the killing process.
Decisions about publishing such graphic pictures are not taken lightly in our newsroom.
The discussion about this particular picture evolved over several months as the enormity of the pet overpopulation problem became clearer, according to Projects Editor Janet Williams.
When the picture was taken last summer, Williams said, the initial reactions from project team members ranged from “it’s got to go on Page 1″ to her own initial reaction that it was just “too upsetting to use.”
“But as time went on, it was clear that while the words and graphics told of a significant community problem, they didn’t tell the whole story. Those photos were a significant part of the story,” Williams said.
So the final decision was to use the picture prominently on an inside page with a front-page warning that some readers might find the photo offensive.
Director of Photography Mike Fender, the series’ photographer, said he knew it would be a “touchy picture.”
“If we don’t use the picture, we are skirting the issue. That picture is what the whole story is about — killing animals and cleaning up society’s problems,” he said.
A postscript:
The irony is that the unsettling picture showing the carcasses of the animals killed at the Humane Society of Indianapolis resulted indirectly from the society’s refusal to allow The Star to photograph the euthanization process.
So Fender and reporter Bill Theobald observed the process at the Morgan County Humane Society in Martinsville. An employee told them the fertilizer company truck that picks up the dead animals was coming that afternoon.
When the truck arrived at the Morgan County facility, the driver lowered the tailgate, exposing the barrels of unbagged dead dogs he had just picked up at the Humane Society of Indianapolis. That’s when Fender took the picture.
Morgan County and the Indianapolis Animal Care and Control shelter bag the carcasses before disposal, while the local Humane Society does not.
