I like kitties. A lot. I definitely have that brain parasite that makes you like cats, and I have enough of it that I’m 100% okay with it.
Today’s #Caturday piece of Twitter wisdom is all about kitties.
You’ve probably heard this nugget:
I’ve heard it many times, too. Black cats don’t get adopted as much as…well, not black cats.
So is it true, do black cats die in shelters while their…not black friends go to forever homes?
Yes and no.
The origin of the lack of love for black cats seems to come from shelters and shelter workers, who feel there is an overabundance of black cats in shelters and being euthanized. But these sorts of things are subject to bias. If you start thinking that black cats aren’t getting adopted, you mentally tally all the unadopted black cats. But your brain tends to ignore data that doesn’t fit your theory, so you ignore the torties and ginger boys who don’t find homes.
What does the data say?
Enter Emily Weiss, vice president of shelter research and development for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. This is someone with both access to data and employed by a group that is very concerned with the welfare of animals.
Weiss did some research, looking at over 300,000 animal adoptions, to find out if it was true, do black cats have a harder time getting adopted. Her conclusion? No.
Her finding: black coats are a dominant trait in cats. Which means, with random breeding, which is how a lot of cats end up in shelters, there’s a good chance that there will be more black cats than any other color. So, the pool of black cats entering the shelter is going to be higher. So, when you see something like the Peta website saying “the majority of euthanized cats are black cats,” that makes sense, statistically. If the majority of cats are black, then the majority euthanized would be as well.
Weiss found, in fact, that black cats are adopted at a HIGHER rate than other colors, and they represent a full 31% of adoptions (the next-closest being gray, 20%, and brown, 18%).
When it comes to putting animals down: “Black cat euthanasia rate is a bit higher than the others at 30%, with gray cats being the next highest at 28%. White cats do not fare much better at 26% euthanasia rate.”
There is another factor. Often, one of the cited theories for less adoption of black cats is that black cats don’t photograph as well. This MAY have been true if we’re talking about a newspaper ad in 1994, but in 2020, that’s pretty silly. You’ve got a better camera in your pocket than your grandfather could’ve bought with all the money in the world. Take a look around instagram. They photograph just fine.
I know some people don’t want to adopt them because they fear for the cat’s safety around Halloween or some bullshit, but people, there’s a long Snopes article that finds this to be a legend, and here’s the summary:
Dr. Leslie Sinclair, a veterinarian who is director of companion animal care for the Humane Society of the United States, said shelters across the country ban adoptions at this time of year — or at least closely scrutinize adoption applicants.
Although many shelter operators acknowledge having little or no first-hand experience with animal sacrifices on Halloween, they have long traded tales of black cats being decapitated, disemboweled or skinned to mark the holiday. Shelter operators say pet owners should keep their pets indoors at Halloween.
But tales of widespread animal torture on Halloween might be more legend than real, Sinclair said. She said that society officials employed a clipping service to survey news accounts of feline carnage surrounding Halloween 1996 — and found nothing.
Michael F. Ryan — an investigator with the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office who has advised police departments on the practices of devil worshipers — said no one should fear that black cats are about to be singled out for satanic sacrifice.
“It’s no more significant than a white dog, a brown dog or a polka-dotted kangaroo,” he said. “The more attention people give to this myth, it just helps to ride along on a wave that takes on a life of its own. It’s just not there.”
This is, just like the adoption rate, heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend stuff.
Let’s switch up for a second and talk about why this is a bad rumor to spread.
Weiss also warns that the continued spread of the idea that black cats are harder to adopt out could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the knowledge becomes internalized and people “heard it somewhere” and think it true, despite the numerical evidence that it’s not true AND the large number of black cat owners who will tell you that black cats are delightful.
So, if it’s not true, black cats are not in need of our protection. At least not any more than any other cat. And if that’s the case, consider Weiss’ theory before spreading the word that they are.