Monday, January 12, 2009

Ailing Deputy Dog

My latest effort for the pet-related website zootoo.com is up. It's about how police dogs who cripple themselves on duty get no help from their police agencies once they're no longer able to serve.

This was also the first story I shot using my new fancy tripod. Some of the video is hand-held but the shots of the newspaper clippings, photos and some of the smooth pans of the dog I could never have shot with my old $100 Best Buy tripod.



It's common for the police dog's handler to adopt the dog once it retires. It's also the custom for the person who adopts the dog to take on all costs of its care, even if the dog suffered its injuries in the course of duty.

This story suffered from a lack of action. That's why I included the shot of the rottweiler pacing outside. That gave the story at least some movement. I added the siren sound for a similar reason. There wasn't much ambient sound in the video I shot.

I could have arranged to shoot Deputy Raschke with her new K-9 partner but I had trouble reaching getting in contact with her and the story had been sitting on the shelf since I shot the interview in early December. It was time to get it out the door. I went with what I had.

Click here to read the text version I wrote on zootoo.com. It has more details.

It's also one of the print-style stories that suffered the least amount of copy editing once I submitted it. I had complained after my last one that some of the edits made things either factually or grammatically incorrect.

I certainly want the people at zootoo to publish the story in a form they want. They're paying me, after all, not the other way around. I also want to ensure that what goes out with my name on it is something I'm proud to show off.

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