Black Friday Sale... at the local humane society.

[simba928]

i just had to add my 2 cents. I work at a himane society and we were actually talking about this today at work. I'm not entirely convinced it is a good idea. I think alot of people would get an animal because its free or cheaper than the rest, not because they truly want an animal or because that is the right animal for them. Instead of getting the white dog that is right for them, they get the black dog that is cheaper and they very well could return him when they find out dog isn't what they were looking for.

 

[simba928]

Sorry i had to do this in 2 posts, i'm on my phone and it's being difficult tonight...

As for the black animals, it really depends. Small black dogs typically aren't too difficult to place. Large black dogs do take a little longer to place but we have had a handful of dogs that took a looong time to place and none of them were black. Black dogs are difficult, for us, atleast, but not the most difficult. If it's a puppy, though, it doesn't seem to matter what color they are. They are typically gone within a couple days of being available. Black cats, on the other hand, are super hard to place. Adult cats tend to wait for a long time, but black ones wait forever. Even black kittens are fairly difficult to place.

 

[skw444]

I knew about the black cats being harder to place but I didn't know that about black dogs. We are a cat family and currently have 2 black cats and they are our cats (we have 4 cats total) with the most personality and most lovable.

 

[ElizK]

Interesting! Did not know that. I have 3 adopted dogs... all medium size, all mostly black!

 

[Soarin08]

My family has a black/tan chihuahua. So funny about black dogs/cats- our dog is adorable!

What a neat thing for the OP's shelter to do!

 

[Piecey]

i just had to add my 2 cents. I work at a himane society and we were actually talking about this today at work. I'm not entirely convinced it is a good idea. I think alot of people would get an animal because its free or cheaper than the rest, not because they truly want an animal or because that is the right animal for them. Instead of getting the white dog that is right for them, they get the black dog that is cheaper and they very well could return him when they find out dog isn't what they were looking for.

NEver thought about it like that.

I remember in the news piece they did she mentioned that some of the people who came for the sale did end up adopting an animal that didn't qualify for it... I think she only said 3-4 of the 30+ who applied went for a different animal, though.

 

[chell]

That is a great idea if the people really are ready to adopt that animal.

Another reason the black animals are more difficult to adopt is because they are more difficult for the shelters to photograph. Their pictures don't get posted online for people to review before the go to the shelter. Sometimes when people get to the shelter they already have a few animals in mind from looking online and all of the black ones have been omitted.

When I was going to look at kittens to pick out one for my grieving dog, Auggie, the lady she told me she had a solid black kitten. I told her that if Auggie and the kitten got along that was the one I wanted. When I was a little girl I had a black cat and loved him to pieces. So I wanted another one. I don't see what the big deal is about them being black. He's my big ole bundle of fur!

 

[punkin]

I adopted a mostly black English Springer Spaniel and never realized black fur was an issue.

Black cats, I can see some superstitious nonsense, but dogs? Why?

 

[simba928]

Another reason the black animals are more difficult to adopt is because they are more difficult for the shelters to photograph. Their pictures don't get posted online for people to review before the go to the shelter. Sometimes when people get to the shelter they already have a few animals in mind from looking online and all of the black ones have been omitted.

We photograph ALL of our animals. It doesn't matter what color they are, we still photograph. They may not look as good as some of the other non-black animals, but they are up on our website.

 

[tzolkin]

We adopted a cat last month and our shelter was having a BOGO sale on cats. I guess it's a good way for them to get some of the extra animals adopted, but I wondered how many people would just take an extra cat that they didn't really want because it was free.

 

[chell]

We photograph ALL of our animals. It doesn't matter what color they are, we still photograph. They may not look as good as some of the other non-black animals, but they are up on our website.

I didn't mean none of the shelters post pictures of them, some don't. And those who do have pictures of them posted, the pictures don't show as much detail.

 

[*JoGo*]

I've never heard that about black animals. But the first thing that popped into my head was that it's the shed fur.

my ILs had a black persian AND a white persian. and a gray dog, lol. my MIL is not the best housekeeper and i hated sitting on their furniture b/c of the black or white hair.

my cat is a short-hair and her main color is black. there is hair, it shows up easily on our lighter carpet, but i wouldn't have NOT got her b/c of her color. she was the right cat for us.

my main criteria when adopting our dog and our cat -- we wanted SHORT hair rather than long hair.