Hard Road for Blackie

by Malcolm Riordan, DVM

In the world of pet adoption, black cats and dogs are more likely to be euthanized than their lighter colored brethren. This extends even to puppies and kittens. A black dog or cat can take twice as long to get adopted — if they get adopted at all. These unfortunates — among unfortunates — accumulate and in the type of shelters which must take in every animal that is turned over to them, it is mostly those that have been there the longest who are euthanized to make room for the endless stream of new admissions.

This widely recognized phenomenon has a name: The Black Dog Syndrome/The Black Cat Syndrome. To make any efforts to give these black coated dogs and cats an even chance of getting adopted, shelters had to first understand why — why does this black coat bias even exist at all?

Simply put, two main reasons have emerged. Intuitively to most folks the persistence of superstition comes to mind. The other more complex reason has many aspects yet distills to the realization that black cats/black dogs often do not present well in the shelter environment.

Superstitions: irrational, ingrained and often subconscious

Superstitions decrease the adoptability of black cats and even dogs with all black coats. Bad luck, along with misfortune and evil spirits, just come with a black cat in an almost visible cloud that accompanies these cursed felines! Big black dogs are scary too.

A century of movies and literature through a number of centuries have portrayed big black dogs as villainous, dangerous hellhounds that perform apparitions and consort with devils, bats, and vampires! Primitive parts of our minds still can associate black dogs with demonic incarnations and satanic disguise — evil creatures transform themselves into black dogs as a way of traveling unnoticed through the night. Eerie black dogs haunt castles and grave yards. Central and South America are rich in legends of los espiritual malo (the evil spirit) "perros negro."

Officially, Pope Gregory IX told believers that the devil routinely meets his worshippers disguised as a black cat — and with that ensued another round of historical cat killings.

Want a stark example where cats and blood sacrifices are linked to this day? In recent decades shelters and other rescue groups put forth policies of not adopting out black cats or kittens in the weeks before Halloween — this based on a widely accepted fearful myth that satanic cults routinely adopted and then sacrificed black cats to dark spirits that come around this time of year. This itself demonstrates a superstitious fear that pervaded, and to a significant extent still pervades, our society and culture.

It even merited a National Geographic article in 2007! With their investigating finger on the pulse of current ritualistic sacrifices around the globe, the magazine came out with an article that debunked this myth/ legend of these satanic fates for North American black cats adopted in October. The whole thing was stamped "false and silly."

That shelters and other rescue groups bought into, engaged, and reacted to the urban legend/silly myth that satanic groups routinely adopted black cats in the weeks before Halloween for the purpose of ritualistically sacrificing them — this itself is an embarrassing, clear indicator that myths can still affect our society. With a business-as-usual media along for the ride, in effect the media passively co-fostered the myth with shelter organizations nationwide. This was until the more global perspective of this issue of the National Geographic came along and debunked America's new superstitious myth about the old persistent myths.

How black dogs and cats don't often present well in the shelter environment

As it is said, presentation is everything.

First impressions are heavily weighted in our minds. Looking for a dog or cat to adopt is no exception. We must whittle down the field as our heart scans for that special bond to appear. Dogs and cats reveal themselves significantly with their facial expressions and general body language. In creating that all important first impression, faces account for a lot, maybe for everything, often subconsciously. With black dogs and cats in cages with little or no natural light or poorly lit, shadowed indoor kennels, people's subconscious reading of a black dog or cat is significantly obscured.

With a black dog or cat — especially in a shelter setting — many of the important physical cues of facial expression are significantly blunted, obscured, or even lost. Solid black fur absorbs all light, reflects nothing, and can eliminate highlights or any shadows along with shading, contrast, etc. An all black face can limit or cancel out our inborn ability to read them.

When outlines are blurred on a black furred face with the dark colored eyes and the dark pupils of most dogs, many important telltale cues can be all but lost on faces further compromised in shelter lighting situations. As with a mask, the lack of seeing any expression is unsettling. It throws us off.

The feeling,  in that moment of not getting a read on a black dog's or black cat's unique spontaneous emotional/behavioral response to us, we reflexively may go into wariness over this unknown. Masked expressions are a possible threat, a menace. Our response happens automatically. It only takes a few seconds from eye contact, to not getting a read, to a feeling of wariness.

In the shelter environment the easy quick solution is to just skim on past the conflicted moment, move on. With so many dogs and cats to check out, we are focused and optimistic to find a face to love. Blackie loses another chance.

This factor of decreased or obscured ability to 'read' or feel the vibe of a dog or cat is readily demonstrated by all the bad photographs of black dogs and cats. Cameras record how black color absorbs light — loss of shadows, loss of contrast, scale and outlines. The average photograph of a black coated dog or cat may yield little detail or cues of looks, personality, appeal, and energy level. A black smudge of a face is a hard read, little more than a Rorschach ink-blot test.

Bad photographs increase the problem. As more and more shelters post photographs of their adoptable dogs and cats online, growing numbers of adopters use the Internet to search and find their new friend. They have fallen in love with a face online, and come in to meet, greet, and check out that particular pet. It's easy to see that relatively featureless photos of black furred faces get overlooked in the online virtual shelter, the  same way they get passed over by adopters looking around the actual shelter. A bad picture or a dark cage or kennel can doom a potential great pet.

Beyond the flawed optics, designers, decorators, and merchandisers will all tell you that we are drawn not toward the color black as much as towards the lighter, brighter, flashier, or more vivid colors. Same at the shelter. Put out a yellow lab, a chocolate lab, and a black lab — the black lab will be the last to be adopted, if at all.

In a general way, adopters (especially seniors, urban, and condo dwellers) are looking more for smaller or medium sized, easier to handle dogs. It does not help that disproportionately, so many black dogs are big dogs — big black dogs with a hard road ahead.

At the simplest, most basic level, solid black cats or dogs may be dismissed as too plain, too generic. It all adds up to black cats and dogs being subconsciously overlooked, passed over and ignored.

Decreasing the Black Dog/Cat Syndrome

Shelters are bringing attention to and motivating the public to specifically adopt black dogs and black cats with publicity programs and promotions, reducing or dropping all adoption fees for a special week or weekend. There is the concept to enhance and improve ambient lighting, to use natural light, or to locate the black colored ones where light is better. Colorful bandanas or capes are put on the solid black dogs and cats in the shelter to draw attention to them.

Important is the commitment to improve photographs posted online with the use of better lighting, fill-in flash, better backgrounds and other techniques to enhance the online photo visage of those all black faces — so online adopters will no longer just be passing Blackie over.

Now all adopters can become subject to falling in love with a special black face whether online or in person.

All black cat pictures in this month's column are from Google images. Come out to Woods Humane Society or click on the logo and take a look through some of the 100+ adoptable dogs and cats waiting for you to 'graduate' them into a new life.

Woods Rafter Cat Image on Banner by Malcolm Riordan.