Black Cat Superstitions
April 12th, 2011Have you heard the superstition that if a black cat crosses your path you will have bad luck? Or perhaps that black cats are connected to witches and magic? In the United States, black cats are connected with many negative superstitions.
As luck would have it, black cats are the most common color in animal shelters. Did you know that black cats have the lowest rate of adoption and highest rate of being put to sleep? For whatever reason, black cats statistically tend to not be adopted than other colors of cats.
These negative suggestions cause problems in the month of October when shelters and rescues in America stop adopting black cats. They worry that this is the month when folks are looking to do bad things to cats that are all black. Naturally, this means that the euthanasia rates in October are the highest.
It is high time for animal rescues to use the same adoption processes they do throughout the year. After all, if someone wants find a cat and hurt it, they can do it anytime. People is animal welfare typically have a gut sense about folks who are up to no good- why does this good judgment get turned off in October?
Lately, there has been research regarding black cats vs. other colors. This has yet to be verified, but as someone who is owned by a black cat and has helped many black cats get adopted I can tell you this: Black cats have outgoing, playful personalities Black cats are smart- mine opens doors, opens cabinets, and sometimes shuts doors. When my bedroom door slams in the middle of the night and the only cat in the room is my black one, I have tried to blame it on the open window, but I wonder… Sometimes it seems as if they know they are the undercat so they try harder to get attention and show off …and isn’t it said that black goes with everything?
Next time someone tells you that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck leave them with this thought: A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere. - Groucho Marx