Couple Turns to Art to Aid in Dream of a No-Kill Nation

We Americans love our dogs. We treat them like family; many of us let them sleep in our beds. We even buy them holiday presents and dress them up for Halloween. And we can't seem to get enough of those cute and silly dog videos on the web. So why in the U.S. are an estimated 5,500 dogs killed each day at shelters around the country?

Mark Barone and Marina Dervan first learned about the situation for dogs in shelters when they went to adopt a dog of their own. What they discovered so shocked them that they quit their jobs and decided to create a giant art exhibit -- An Act of Dog -- to educate the public about homeless dogs and to raise money toward helping create a no-kill nation. Mark is painting portraits of dogs who have been euthanized in shelters around the U.S. -- 5,500 of them, to represent the number of dogs killed in those same shelters in a single day. Once the paintings are finished, they'll be sold. Mark and Marina hope to raise $20 million for foster, rescue, and no-kill groups.

According to Mark, who is painting all the portraits over a two-year period, they want people who see the exhibit "to have a deeply visceral, visual and vivid experience. We want the 5,500 sweet faces to move them to action. We want people to recognize that what took one man two years to paint we kill in just one day."

Read more about what Mark and Marina are doing in this recent interview on the blog Zoe.

Mark and Marina's project is a great reminder that humane education doesn't have to mean getting up in front of a group of people to speak. Art is another powerful means for educating and empowering others.

~ Marsha

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