Dogs in high-fashion cone collars raise money for local pups in need

When Brooklyn photographer Winnie Au lost her rescue dog — a Corgi named Tartine — to cancer about a decade ago, she was struck by how expensive the medical costs were.She decided she wanted to help raise money for needy animals with acute health issues.“We were lucky at the time and had pet insurance that covered most of our costs.

It was one of the reasons we moved forward with the chemotherapy and radiation treatments.But I realized that when your dog is sick or injured, it’s horrible to have to make medical decisions based on finances.

So I vowed to do something about it,” she writes in the introduction to her new art book, “Cone of Shame” (out now; Union Square & Co).The tome features photos of some 60 tri-state dogs, several of them rescues, in high fashion interpretations of the flimsy plastic cone collars pets typically wear while recovering from surgery.Au, a 42-year-old editorial and commercial shutterbug whose work has been featured in Elle, People and many other publications, first started photographing dogs in cone collars in 2017.

She enlisted Marie-Yan Morvan, a designer/art director whose clients have included everyone from Fendi to Google, to create the cones, and decided to donate a portion of proceeds from print to Animal Haven’s Recovery Road Fund.The initiative allows the rescue group to take in and care for creatures with challenging medical issues, and Au estimates that she’s raised in the ballpark of $10,000 for it over the years.

“I wanted to create something that was fun and kind of weird, but also give back to a cause I feel strongly about,” Au said.The project grew and grew, and she secured a book deal in the early 2020s.Morvan made custom cone collars out of everything from faux fur to pool noodles to suit the look of each dog.

The cones were strictly for fashion, not medical, purposes.A grey Bedlington terrier named Waldo wears an assortment of grey wool pompoms that look like an extension of the his cu...