Kitten Season… How can YOU help?
May 23, 2019
Mother cat gives birth to her babies in a police station
October 10, 2019Instagram and Facebook culture is not helping black cats!
A cat rehoming centre located in Bristol (UK) is currently looking after 40 animals, none of which are ginger, tabby or tortoiseshell. A rescue shelter founder said, for the first time in the organisation’s history all of its animals are black
The RSPCA released research in 2014showing more than 70 per cent of the cats in its care were black or black and white.
She said: “Instagram culture is making it worse, because people want the posh pedigrees.
Christine Bayka says the cats are all black because they are being rejected by prospective owners because darker cats photograph badly and don’t look good in selfies.
She said: “It’s worse now because black cats don’t show up in selfies. ”Now everybody wants to take selfies and put them on Facebook. It’s a very narcissistic use of social media.
“It happens all the time, I will go through all the questions and say ‘are you flexible about colour?’ Then they will say, ‘yes, as long as it’s not black.’
“It’s an increasing problem, it wasn’t like this 20 years ago. “Over 20 years of having difficulty rehoming black cats, it’s definitely got harder because of selfies.”
A spokesperson for the RSPCA said: ”On average it takes thirty days or more to rehome a black or black and white cat.
”This is compared to a ginger cat which takes an average of twenty days to rehome.
”Sadly the RSPCA sees more black and black and white cats come into its care than any other colour of cat too.”
Dr Jane Tyson, RSPCA scientific officer for the companion animals department, said: “It is a sad fact that black cats really don’t have much luck because we see more of them coming through our doors than any other colour of cat, possibly because they are much more common.
“Ginger and tabbies have the distinctive markings making them look more attractive to some but we would urge people to look beyond what an animal looks like.
”Their fur colour makes no difference to how much love they have to give.
“Black cats won’t bring you good luck or bad luck but they do need forever homes. If you can bring some magic into their lives they are sure to bring some love into yours.”
Source: telegraph.co.uk
