We will no longer accept cat slander!

Justice for our feline friends

By: Brianna White

With Halloween having recently passed, many of us are familiar with the superstition surrounding black cats. Black cats are accused of being bad luck, associated with witchcraft, and they have even been believed to cause death. The origin of this superstition isn’t confirmed but is believed to have begun in the Middle Ages, originating in Europe. Although most of us are educated enough to understand that this is just a myth, I had come across a TikTok posted by a volunteer for a shelter in Montana who claimed they were not adopting out black cats during October for their safety. This was because they often get killed around the time of Halloween, due to the superstition that they are "bad luck."

Photo sent by Mary Tan

That surprised me. I had thought it was something from the past. I reached out to the shelter to get more information. I also reached out to some animal shelters in Minnesota to get a more local perspective. Every rescue shelter that I reached out to said they have a thorough screening process and that this claim was false for their facility. “Our organization does adopt out black cats during October. There was a time when we did not; however, we strengthened our adoption screening processes and trained our adoption volunteers to follow those processes. Then we became confident that we were not jeopardizing our cats' safety by continuing adoptions in October,” said Robin Bliss, cat movement manager at Feline Rescue in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Even the shelter in Montana where the TikTok came from was very apologetic about the misinformation and said this wasn’t true. So I guess this was a lesson. Do not believe everything you hear on the Internet! Despite the false rumor that an overwhelming number of black cats got sacrificed, I did find out that cats get euthanized more than dogs, according to ASPCA. Furthermore, black cats are euthanized the most among shelter animals, according to Petpedia.

Photo sent by Mary Tan

I was able to speak to Mary Tan, the public relations manager from the Animal Humane Society about this issue and received some of her input on this subject. One issue she brought up was how dogs seem to be valued more than cats in our society. “In Minnesota, we have a shortage of adoptable dogs… when it comes to cats, it’s a different story,” said Tan. She stressed the importance of education about cat ownership. The idea that cats are a more disposable pet than a dog should not be the case. Cats are just as trainable as dogs are, but of course, you would go about training differently. When people think of cats, they often think of house cats who lay around all day and occasionally scratch on their scratching post, but there are travel bloggers who take their cats outdoors on camping and hiking trips. However, it’s rare to hear that. Dogs are the animals that are expected to be taken on these types of outings with their owners. Cats are also able to do tricks just like dogs are, and there is even a cat band called The Rock Cats. 

Ultimately, cats are capable of more than they are given credit for. This is just something to keep in mind when you’re looking to adopt your next pet.