Tamira Ci Thayne is founder and executive director of Dogs Deserve Better, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the chaining and penning of dogs, and bringing 'man's best friend' into the home and family.

She is an animal advocate and artist living in rural Pennsylvania, and credits her animal activism to a childhood living with the tragedy she works against—a sad, chained beagle and a beloved black lab and cats, all living outside and longing to be in.

Thayne holds a B.A. in Art from the University of Maryland, and a B.A. in Naturology from the American Institute for Holistic Theology.

She credits the start of Dogs Deserve Better to Bo, formerly Worthless, a black lab mix who she was later able to rescue and who lived as part of her family until passing in 2003. If her heart didn’t break every time she drove past his beautifully sweet face for six years, she would still be seeking her mission today. To read more about the work and programs of Dogs Deserve Better, go to http://www.dogsdeservebetter.org.

Thayne's animal-advocacy-focused art has produced two series of note to date: Little Girl Looking, which documents her journey from that of a young girl who does not see or care about the plight of the animals to an adult who now, even in the midst of pleasure, cannot forget their pain; and the New Orleans After Katrina Series, which reflects the feelings of rescuers in the wake of the tragedy and her experiences from rescuing there in November 2005. Her art site can be reached at http://www.littlegirllooking.com.