How an independent musician  found happiness helping dogs in need.

Musician • Visual Artist • Devoted Dog Dad

Daniel Cartier is a musician and visual artist residing in Tennessee.  Through multiple forms of creative expression, he views creativity as a life saving force.

A lifelong animal advocate, Daniel wrote his song "Soul on a Chain" to try and shed light on the plight of neglected dogs. 

Says Daniel: "I’ve seen animals in horrible living situations, and I always try to help. Sometimes I'll talk to the animal’s owners. Other times I’ll call law enforcement. As I got older, the suffering of these animals resonated on an even deeper level. A dog chained up 24 hours a day is serving a life sentence for a crime they never committed. The only “crime” is the fact that people think it’s OK to treat another living soul this way. Dogs need to be part of the pack. They crave love, and desperately want to give love in return. To rob a dog of that is unbelievably cruel.

The reality is, many chained dogs were probably excited when they were led outside to be chained up. They didn't realize it would be forever. They probably thought they were about to go on a walk. Their tails probably wagged with excitement, and they thought “what adventure are we going on now?” 

With one click of a latch, they were suddenly confined to a tiny patch of yard, often for years. Thinking about this devastates me.

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I decided I needed to do something to hopefully raise awareness, and let people know that dogs deserve better. treatment than this. 

I got the idea for a song sung from the point of view of a dog living its entire life on a chain. When I played it for people, they’d often start crying and saying people needed to hear it, so I recorded the song professionally, and my partner Corey directed a beautiful video for it that told the dog’s life story in more detail. 

We’re inviting animal rescues everywhere to use the song and video for their fundraising purposes. It’s our way of saying “thank you” to all the people devoting their lives to the rescue of neglected animals. 

The song and video won’t change the entire problem, but even if one dog winds up living a better life because of something I created, it’ll be worth it.