Has a history of superstition surrounding black cats and their use as a popular Halloween symbol made the holiday a dangerous time for these animals?
Becky Robinson, president and founder of the nonprofit animal welfare organization Alley Cat Allies, told USA Today that black cats aren’t in any more danger on Oct. 31.
“That’s pure myth,” she said. “It's just an old fear that black cats are going to be adopted by people with bad intentions.”
Cultures around the world have positive and negative superstitions about black cats, said the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
According to USA Today, there are rumors that black cats get abused, used for satanic rituals, abandoned or killed during the Halloween season and that animal shelters sometimes don’t allow people to adopt black cats during the month of October. CNN reported in 2019 that some shelters had stopped offering Halloween specials on black cats to prevent the animals from being harmed.
A study conducted by researchers in Kentucky that was published last year found that cats with black coats are the most likely to be euthanized and the least likely to be adopted compared to other cats. It also found that adoption rates for black cats do not increase around Halloween.
Overall, cats die at shelters more than any other animal in the country, according to USA Today. More than half of the estimated 920,000 animals who are euthanized annually are cats, said the outlet.
While Robinson – who founded Alley Cat Allies in 1990 – she said that she has found no data to support the tales of black cats being harmed around Halloween, at least one animal shelter said it sees an uptick in black cat-related incidents in October.
“Surprisingly, vicious pranksters have been known to tease, injure, steal, and even kill pets on Halloween night,” said FurKids, a group of animal rescues in Georgia. “Even more common is the harm and torture of black cats due to superstitions. Each year after Halloween, we [get] calls of injured and abused black cats, likely victims of Halloween torture.”
Both Robinson and the authors of the Kentucky study agree that encouraging people to adopt black cats around Halloween is still a good measure.
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“Halloween is a marketing season for black cats,” Robinson said. “A lot of animal shelters actually use this time of year to promote black cats for adoption.”
As the owner of a black cat herself, she said they have brought her luck.
“They're uplifting, and I know that there's hundreds of thousands of people who agree with me who have shared their homes with black cats,” she said.
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