People see what they want to see when it comes to powerful, or emotionally moving, photographs. And that was the case on Thursday when The Democrat published on its website photographs of a dog and cat burned in a house fire at 106 Clover St., in Woodland.

As of Wednesday afternoon I had received three phone calls (all from Sacramento by the way) from people angry that we published the photographs and demanding I remove them.

One caller told me that the pets were like family and that the owners would be in deep grief to see their family suffering.

Another caller simply said she was "shocked" I could be so callous as to publish such hurtful images.

For those who missed the paper, the cat and dog were burned when the roof caught fire and they were inside the home with no way out. The home itself was badly damaged on the inside.

Fortunately, responding firefighters were able to get the animals to safety. Unfortunately, the cat died from smoke inhalation. The dog died late Wednesday afternoon from its injuries.

I've had lots of experience in publishing photographs of animals in pain. My first was taking a photograph of puppies as they were injected with a paralyzing agent to stop their breathing.

I was in Oregon at the time and the story concerned the number of puppies being put to death because of unwanted breeding. The veterinarian invited me to his kennel to show what he had to do to manage all the puppies being born.

He didn't like putting them to death but had no choice.


He had a pickup load of some of some of the cutest puppies I'd ever seen. All dead.

I cried. He cried. People seeing the photograph (in black and white no less) were upset and phoned me. The vet was unmoved.

Years ago, here at The Democrat, we published a photograph of a Woodland firefighter providing oxygen to a dog who had been pulled from a burning home. The photograph drew raves for the kind-hearted firefighter. The dog lived.

And that's how I saw those photographs that were provided to us by a person at the scene. The photographer wanted to capture the intensity of firefighters and others trying to save the lives of two family pets.

Others might have written off the dog and cat, but our firefighters did their best to ease their suffering.

I can only wonder what people who object so much to seeing animals in pain say when they see photographs of children killed by gunmen, or people dead at the hands of a terrorist bomber? Do they still pick up the phone?