Seasonal Prey Shelters Avoid Adopting Out Black Pets Around Halloween
To keep them out of the hands of Halloween pranksters, black cats and black dogs are on the blacklist at animal shelters this week.
“It’s a precaution. We just don’t want anybody to get any ideas,” said Bev Kreiger, co-manager of the Panhandle Animal Shelter in Sandpoint.
“We’ve never had any problems here, but you always hear about the pranks and cult stuff with black cats that happen in bigger cities on Halloween.”
Most animal shelters in Idaho and Washington now have a blanket policy that keeps all black pets, not just cats, from being adopted out before Halloween.
“Actually the whole month of October we are pretty careful about adopting out any black animals,” said SpokAnimal C.A.R.E.’s Linda Pruitt. “Luckily we don’t have any black cats right now.”
The Sandpoint shelter does. Two weeks ago a man came looking for an inky feline. He wanted the pet for Halloween. The shelter turned him down.
“We don’t want to take any chances,” Kreiger said. “We have cared for these animals far too long to have someone think they are just toys.”
Kreiger has moved the black cats to a back room so they are not on display. Most shelters still let people pick out a black pet, but they won’t be able to take it home until a few days after Halloween.
“Shelters are starting to be a lot more careful, especially around the holidays,” Pruitt said. “We screen people and talk with them to get a feeling if this is going to be a good thing or bad thing.”
Shelters don’t recommend people get any pet as a holiday gift. And the Halloween policy is similar to one shelters use for Christmas.
SpokAnimal C.A.R.E. now prefers to give gift certificates on holidays so the people getting the pet can come in and pick it out themselves.
“Holidays, like Halloween, are traumatic on animals,” Pruitt said.
Shelter managers advise pet owners, especially those with black cats, to keep their animals indoors during Halloween.
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