Every pet deserves love, care, and respect. No matter how they look. After all, it’s the inside that really matters, not the scars we show to the world outside. Unfortunately, the real world isn’t built that way and a lot of people can’t look beyond the “ugliness” of a pet and opt to rescue one that’s prettier.
That’s the tearful reality that German artist Jenny-Jinya, aka Jenny Hefczyc, showed in her comic about an “ugly” dog that nobody wants to bring home with them. The illustrator created the comic as a way to talk about how a lot of people look just at the outside.
Like all of Jenny’s comics, this one has a bittersweet and unexpected ending, too. Have a look for yourselves, dear Pandas, and be sure to tell us all about how the story made you feel. We know you’re big fans of Jenny’s work, so you can have a look through her other recent powerful work featured on Bored Panda here: Orcas, Parrots, Dog. Be prepared to shed a tear.
Jenny told Bored Panda in an interview that she financially supports animal shelters each month and most of her knowledge about what happens there comes from the employees working there who communicate with her digitally. "From the messages I get, many shelters have struggled a lot last year. Many have not been able to hold fundraiser events because of Covid, and so they have lacked donations," the artist said.
Jenny created another powerful comic. This one is about how people treat a shelter dog that looks different than everyone else
Image credits: jenny_jinya
Image credits: jenny_jinya
Image credits: jenny_jinya
Image credits: jenny_jinya
Image credits: jenny_jinya
Image credits: jenny_jinya
Image credits: jenny_jinya
Image credits: jenny_jinya
Image credits: jenny_jinya
In the artist's opinion, we can only speculate about why so many people focus on their potential pets' looks. "We already know that black cats and dogs are often not adopted because some people think they don't look good in photos. I have the impression that it’s often less about how the chemistry between man and animal is, but how 'presentable' the animal is in photos. Stars who present their 'designer pets' and support unethical breeding instead of adopting, might be a problem as well."
As for the artist's plans for 2021, she wanted to keep things a tad mysterious and didn't give too much away: "I can't reveal too much yet, but there is a lot planned. Not only in new comics but also in publications." One thing's for sure—we can't wait to see what's next for Jenny.
Jenny cuts straight to the core of the problem. Even though animal shelters are meant to house pets until they can be rescued, most people would prefer to have an 'aesthetic' pet at home, no matter how warm and kind one that’s been hurt before might be. That’s the sad truth.
Over 254.4k people liked Jenny’s comic that she published right on Christmas eve. The artist already has 469k followers on Instagram and she keeps on drawing in new fans with her emotionally resonating art.
For her, art has been a passion and an obsession since she was very small. In an earlier interview with Bored Panda, the artist opened up about how her mother joked that she could draw before she could properly walk. In Jenny’s words, she picked up a pencil when she was a kid and “never stopped scribbling.”
Her goal is to create worlds and tell stories through her illustrations. However, just like other artists, Jenny needs to take breaks. The stories that she does require lots of research which can be draining because of how sensitive the topics are. So she takes a few days off after publishing a new comic to recuperate. Cute cat videos are one of the ways she does this. This way, she avoids burnout and keeps her love for art and animals.
Here's how people reacted to the tearjerker story
