My Mascot Don’t Believe In The Great Pumpkin

Sort of. Many shelters make adopting black cats before Halloween more difficult — but not necessarily due to the threat from cat-sacrificing satanic cults. In fact, little evidence exists to support the cat-sacrificing theory.

The more likely threat is that people will adopt cats as props for Halloween costumes or haunted houses and then abandon them afterward. As a result, adoption policies around Halloween can range from extra-careful screening of potential cat owners to keeping all cats under lock and key in the weeks or days before the holiday.

Sheesh. I thought the earlier story I had about killing them for pelts (Black Cat Day) was fairly bad… and this after an earlier item about ‘Black Cats Unlucky at Shelters‘ too – Seattle Times:

A 2002 study in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science that examined adoption rates over nine months in a California pound found that black cats were about half as likely to be adopted as tabby cats and two-thirds less likely than white cats. But for cats in general, the odds are not good: of the approximately 3,000 cats of all colors offered for adoption during that time, only around 600, or 20 percent, found homes. Those remaining were euthanized….

It is common practice among rescue organizations to stop allowing black cat adoptions during October, to prevent them from being used as party props and returned, or, as urban legend has it, sacrificed on Halloween. “We don’t adopt our black kitties out during October. We just won’t take that chance,” said Kathy Jentsch of the Purr-fect Sanctuary, a shelter in Hector, Ark.

But some shelters are working to change a black cat’s luck, said the Humane Society’s Peterson, by featuring them prominently at adoption events.

And the Web site of the Kitten Rescue group lists the top 10 reasons to adopt a black cat. Number nine: “A lint brush isn’t required for a black-tie affair.” Number eight: “Holding a black cat is very slimming.” And the number one reason to adopt a black cat? “They are the least likely to be adopted.”

Personally, I got mine because she marched straight up to my husband when we were looking at abandoned cats at our local Vet and purred loudly! Since then, it’s been a few years of work to get her to like me better! Mostly involving food, I must admit. And playing with catnip – I did resort to bribery to get my moggy to favour me first, although certainly not using witchcraft!