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For two years, filmmaker Cynthia Wade was given unprecedented access to Rondout Valley Kennels during which time she focused her camera on several dogs brought in to the kennels.
HBO: How did you choose the topic of Shelter Dogs?
CYNTHIA: In 1999, when I was searching for a new documentary topic, I decided I wanted to make a film about ethics. I wanted to enter into a world where people struggled daily with moral dilemmas. I thought that the inside of an animal shelter, where staff members grapple with life and death decisions, would be a very powerful way to examine larger societal issues.
HBO: How did you find Sue Sternberg?
CYNTHIA: There's an unbelievable amount of information out there about sheltering, so once I had decided to do a verité documentary on the subject, I dove into research, devouring books, visiting all kinds of shelters, interviewing rescuers and animal welfare experts. Regardless of who I spoke to, Sue's name kept cropping up. What was interesting is that people had very definite opinions about her. Some people described her as a forward-thinking pioneer who had revolutionized how shelters cared for their animals - while others somberly whispered, "she really believes in euthanasia." No one was neutral about Sue, and that piqued my interest.
On the first day that I met Sue, I thought that we were going to have a polite conversation in her office. Instead, she met me at the front door of Rondout Valley Kennels (located in upstate New York, about 2.5 hours from New York City). Sue was in rumpled clothes and had a look of great urgency. She blurted out: "I can't sit and talk. There's a dog down the road that has been in a fence fight and she's really hurt. We have to go get her. Are you coming - or aren't you?" I was a little startled, but jumped in the car with her and followed her around all day. I observed, asked questions, and by the end of the journey, I knew that Sue was the person I wanted to film because she is a provocative character.
From the beginning, my goal was not to make a comprehensive study of all shelters across the country. I was interested in Sue's particular story and the specific decisions that her staff faced at Rondout Valley Kennels. The film is not meant to be a sweeping epic of the state of animal sheltering in the United States; it is instead a portrait piece of one shelter. Although Sue's small shelter is unusual, many of the moral issues that she faces are widely experienced by many shelters around the country.
HBO: How long did it take to make the film?
CYNTHIA: I filmed for two years, on and off. During the first year, I filmed intensively for six months. I lived up in Ulster County (New York). A relative of a friend donated their weekend house. Later on, several bed and breakfasts donated rooms when they had them available. During the first year of shooting, I filmed as much as I could because I had a true internal deadline - I was pregnant! After I had my baby, I went up to the shelter for chunks of time and completed shooting. The film took about eight months to edit. So in total, it took about three years to make the film.
HBO: As you have been showing the film around the country, what has been the response of the animal sheltering community, and of the general public?
I believe that the purpose of a documentary is to encourage dialogue, spark discussion, and help create a forum where people with diverse opinions can communicate. This is already happening before the HBO broadcast of the film - which is very healthy. The animal sheltering community is a very diverse population that includes large humane societies, animal control facilities, city shelters, private shelters, individual sanctuaries, and grass-roots rescue groups. There has been a lot of intense debate about some of the scenes in the film. Some shelter workers have said, "My spouse/parent/sibling/friend never really understood what I face every day, and now they understand. Thank you for making this film." People have driven from up to four hours away to come see a local screening, and the Question-and-Answer period after the film is always vigorous. I think that's great - that's what a good documentary should do.
What's interesting about showing this film to the general public is that sometimes people say that they are afraid to see the film because they think they'll be too upset. It is one of the reasons people stay away from visiting their local shelter - they are scared that it will be too overwhelming. The film was made, in part, to demystify what goes on behind a shelter's four walls. We have gotten sensitive, eloquent and impassioned e-mails from people around the country who are very moved to help their local shelter - whether by volunteering their time, donating food, blankets, and toys for the shelter animals.
Some shelters are already noticing a difference in the kinds of dogs people are interested in adopting. There is an old dog in the film, a 12-year-old Shepherd named Agnes, who nobody is interested in because all of the adopters want puppies. Sue says that she has already seen an increase in adopters wanting older dogs, because they were moved by Agnes' story. Those people have seen the value and benefit of adopting a calmer companion animal -one that is usually trained and used to living in a home environment. There also seems to be a greater understanding that "purebred" animal is not more valuable than a "mixed breed" animal. People are looking beyond breed and instead noticing the individual temperament of each dog, which in my opinion is how it should be.
HBO: What have you learned?
It is a privilege to be a documentary filmmaker, because you get to enter worlds that you would otherwise never experience. With every film that I make, something inside of me fundamentally changes forever, and I also feel like I leave a little piece of me behind.
I think that when I started this project, I didn't see things as completely black-and-white, but I think I was more inclined to believe that "no kill" shelters were inherently more humane because they didn't "kill" their animals. Now, having followed shelter staff members who are charged with making life and death decisions, I really appreciate the troubling and difficult ethical dilemmas that they face on a daily basis. On a personal level, the film has raised fundamental questions about quality of life for shelter animals. For instance, is it more humane to sentence a dog to a lifetime of stress in a shelter environment - or is it kinder to euthanize him? If a dog is a known biter, should he be adopted out? Can an aggressive dog be rehabilitated? Is the shelter's responsibility to the dogs - or the adopting public?
The issues are complex. Watching the shelter staff navigate a very murky terrain really helped me understand how controversial and complex animal sheltering really is. There are no easy answers.
SHELTER DOGS director Cynthia Wade's career in documentary filmmaking has included work for almost every television broadcast outlet and dozens of non-profit and corporate clients. She was principal camera for the 2003 Academy Award®nominated Cinemax short documentary "The Collector of Bedford Street". She recently finished shooting "Risk/Reward", a documentary about Women on Wall Street for Oxygen Media, as well as three "True Life" documentary specials for MTV. Wade also directed the 1999 Cinemax documentary "Grist for the Mill." Wade teaches documentary film production at Film/Video Arts in New York. She received a BA cum laude from Smith College and an MA in Documentary Film Production from Stanford University.
For more on Cynthia's projects, visit her website at: cynthiawade.com.
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