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Would You Adopt a Black Dog or Cat?

November 29th, 2009 | Author: Rebecca

Did you know that cats and dogs with black coats have a lower adoption rate at shelters and are euthanized more often than other pets?

In some shelters, up to 40% of the cats that are euthanized are black.

This phenomenon is so common in black dogs that it is now called Black Dog Syndrome (BDS). I don’t see that it matters what color an animal is, but some folks think that they just don’t stand out as much, so people really don’t notice them. And also there are all kinds of weird superstitions about black cats.

Some animal rescue groups came up with the idea of promoting Black Friday adoptions, now there are hundreds of Black Friday Adopt-a-thons held from one end of the country to another. I personally have no interest in the “Black Friday” shopping frenzy but anything that will help animals get adopted into good, loving homes has my support. Whatever works.

This post brings up memories of my beautiful black Sunflower, a cat I got from the shelter years ago. She spent 19 years with me, and I still miss her.

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Posted in Dog Stuff Too, Protect Cats and Other Animals, Uncategorized, articles | Tags: adoption, black, cat, dog, euthanized, friday, pet

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19 Responses to “Would You Adopt a Black Dog or Cat?”

Fisher:
November 29th, 2009 9:51 pm

I totally agree with you and cannot understand the problem of adopting black cats and dogs. Makes no sense. But then, I have a hard time understanding why we can’t just bring them all home. Staff says “Not.”

Barbara:
November 29th, 2009 10:41 pm

My Rose, was a Black Burmese,much like the cat pictured above. We had her for 16 years. She had a very sweet and loving nature. I still miss her too!

Storm:
November 29th, 2009 11:06 pm

6 out of 8 of our pets are black, and I’ll admit, when we were on the hunt for rescuing a new corgi, we were hoping to have a tri-color land on our lap so they’d all be (mostly) black.

I’d take all those black kitties in if I could! (it’s only hoarding if you don’t take care of them properly, I swear! LOL)

Lin:
November 29th, 2009 11:15 pm

That’s sad because one of the best cat’s I’ve owned was all black. I still have a warm spot in my heart for black cats because of him.

Chic Gal:
November 30th, 2009 3:26 am

I worked with LabRescue for years and yes, unfortunately I am well aware of BDS. I would go to the Tulsa shelter to rescue labs and the workers there would say the worst things to me. They often commented that after the 3 day grace period, they would always put the black dogs down first. Especially black lab/mixes. I wanted to take them all home with me.

Sugar:
December 1st, 2009 12:14 pm

Woof! YES,it is a big issue re: black color cats/dogs. My mom wrote an article a while back in regards to this topic. It is so sad. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

Angel:
December 1st, 2009 3:56 pm

I just found a little black kitty in the monsoon drain about 2 weeks ago. She’s so adorable. Actually I think black cats (or dogs) are easier to care for. If you comb their fur regularly, it’ll shine. Love it!

WillOaks Studio:
December 2nd, 2009 2:55 am

Those are such sad statistics. I adopted a little black female kitten about 6 years ago and she’s just the best–and really cute, too! Love black animals, myself!

Patrice:
December 2nd, 2009 11:45 am

Awww, that’s so sad. I have to admit that we were raised to believe black cats were “evil” and not very lovable…Oh how I’ve changed! I think they’re beautiful, mystical creatures

Annas Adornments:
December 3rd, 2009 6:06 am

That is so sad, but propably true. My first cat, Cajsa is mostly black. Nobody wanted to adopt her. Her ginger-coloured brother was chosen first out of the litter. I knew very little abour cats. Cajsa has taught me so much. She has been joy to be with for the last ten years.
Anna

AnnasAdornments:
December 3rd, 2009 6:10 am

Sorry, but I’ll have to leave this comment one more time. A spelling mistake has made the link no work at all.

That is so sad, but propably true. My first cat, Cajsa is mostly black. Nobody wanted to adopt her. Her ginger-coloured brother was chosen first out of the litter. I knew very little about cats. Cajsa has taught me so much. She has been joy to be with for the last ten years.
Anna

Brenda @ Split Rock Ranch:
December 3rd, 2009 7:16 pm

Wow…I must be really weird then because I LOVE black animals! My favorite llama is BLACK, I searched for months to find my favorite dog - my BLACK toy poodle and we have had several black or black and white cats.