GUELPH -- The Guelph Humane Society is helping to put a smile on people’s faces by drawing bad pet portraits.

“We do the best we can, which is not very good,” Alex Ciccone, a director at the shelter, said.  “The whole shtick is that it’s supposed to be bad pet drawings.”

It’s part of the humane society’s newest campaign called Bad Pet Portraits. It’s meant to help raise money for the animals in their care.

“We do welcome in over 3,000 animals a year, so there’s a lot of money that we need to raise each year to make sure we find these animals their happy tails,” said Ginni Yeung, the campaign coordinator.

Pet owners submit a photo of their pet online, which will then get hand drawn by one of the 11 directors at the Guelph Humane Society.  Each director offers their own unique artistic skills.

“Some of them look like kids have drawn them,” Yeung said.

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Ciccone is one of the directors that is drawing the portraits. He doesn’t consider himself an artist by any stretch of the imagination.

“I’m an environmental and municipal lawyer by day, so I do a lot of [typing] and not a lot of drawing.” He said.

It takes him about 20 minutes to complete one drawing.  He's already drawn 15 portraits and said drawing faces is the hardest part.

“If you don’t do it right, they look a bit too human, which is not really what you’re going for,” he said, laughing.  “If you’re going to get something less than professional, the funnier the better.”

So far, almost 250 portraits have been purchased, raising more than $5,000.

“We’ve have people purchase portraits from across Canada, from BC to Nova Scotia.  And actually a few from the United States as well,” Yeung said.

Stacey Huneke got a portrait done of her horse and donkey.  She said when she first saw the drawing, she thought it was done by a child.

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“Then I remembered, that no, an adult drew it and I just started laughing and laughing and laughing,” she said.

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The last day to submit a photo is Friday.