June 13, 2008

Baskin is one of the many black dogs up for adoption at the Williamson County Regional Shelter. He’s a fun-loving, 6 month old labrador retriever mix who needs a good home. (Photo Courtesy of Williamson County Regional Shelter)

GEORGETOWN, Texas -- An animal shelter inundated with black cats and dogs was planning to run a promotion to help get them adopted instead of putting them down.

The “Black is Beautiful” campaign, which was scheduled to run June 14 through June 20, got heavy criticism for coinciding with a Texas holiday that celebrates the final freeing of enslaved blacks, and was subsequently pulled.

“Last week, a vet tech told me that we needed to start considering euthanasia,” Animal Services Director Cheryl Schneider told Pet Pulse. “We had too many black cats and dogs, some of which had been here for a long period of time.”

Like most shelters, the Williamson County Regional Shelter finds it more difficult to locate homes for black dogs and cats. Schneider had heard of other area shelters reducing the adoption rates on these animals, so she decided to run a promotion not knowing about the holiday.

“I said ‘give me a week and let me see if I discount their fee and can get them adopted out,’ ” Schneider said.

As previously reported by Pet Pulse, the “Black Dog Syndrome” is a common affliction for shelters. In addition to superstitions about black cats being bad luck, these animals are given a bad rap by the media and negative advertising that portrays them as evil and aggressive.

According to Kimberley Intino, director of Animal Sheltering Issues for the Humane Society of the U.S., yet another contributing factor is that black animals blend into the background at shelters.

“You can’t really see their faces as well,” Intino said. “If you’re walking down a hallway and you have several black dogs next to each other, you might not notice any one individual dog.”

Adoption sales and discounts for black cats and dogs are not uncommon. Shelters across the country are running similar innovative promotions to try and minimize the amount of time these animals spend waiting for a new home.

Williamson County Regional received criticism for their program due to when it was scheduled.

“It was bad timing that it coincided with Juneteenth,” Schneider said. “It’s not our intention to ever offend any person, so we pulled the promotion advertising.”

Juneteenth -- also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day -- originated in Texas and is now a state holiday observed on June 19 in 26 states. It honors the day that Texas slaves were freed from slavery -- 2 ½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

After sending out a press release to promote the Black is Beautiful campaign, Schneider was informed by a local newspaper that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had filed a complaint saying the adoption promotion was inconsiderate.

Although the shelter is no longer running the Black is Beautiful campaign, they have left the discounted adoption rates in place indefinitely. Despite the lack of marketing, the news story itself generated a lot of attention.

“There have been tons of phone calls and e-mails and we’ve had a steady stream of people in here all day,” Schneider said. “Since noon today, we’ve adopted out more than six cats and two dogs that had been here for a long period of time.”

Schneider is hopeful that the rest of the black cats and dogs will find homes over the weekend.

“The color is just one part of the animal,” Intino said. “When people focus on the color of the animal, we may be inflating a problem that’s not really a problem.

“It’s just another characteristic that should be considered as one part of that individual animal.”

For more information about the Black Dog Syndrome, read “Large, Black Dogs Go Unwanted” at zootoo.com/petnews/largeblackdogsgounwanted.

To adopt an animal from the Williamson County Regional Shelter, visit wilcopets.org.

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