How are your first impressions?
Do you always look your very best? Say everything right?
When it comes to rescue animals, the first impression is a life or death matter. That split second a person walks by or their profile photo is taken will determine how soon they are adopted, what kind of family they end up in, and what their future looks like.
Big Black Dog Syndrome (BBD/ BDS) is the phenomena where black animals, notoriously large dogs, are passed by in favor of lighter animals. Shelter workers see this superficial factor impacting pet adoption and thus, euthanasia.
There are many hypotheses around why coat color has become such a determining factor in life saving efforts. In kennels, capturing a good quality photo of a black animal is more challenging. This photo is their first, and sometimes only, impression to the world seeing their adoption profile or on social media.
Additionally, fear is a factor when it comes to larger black pets. Doberman, pit bulls, and rottweiler’s have the societal pressure of their breed, but some cultures also interpret the color black as bad luck.
No matter the reason, loving shelter dogs should not miss their chance at a forever home because of a black coat. We can all make a difference with our local animal shelters by taking a second look at the animals who might be overlooked.
Support a black rescue animal today!
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4 comments
I would like to see more animal groups. shelters, etc develop programs and events that feature larger, darker colored dogs, which might educate the public on the misconceptions surrounding these animals. They could do the same kinds of events for black cats, which also have a rough time being adopted due to human ignorance and prejudice. One more thing: It’s great that the woman in the video saw the dog for who he really is and decided to adopt him, but why would she keep the name Hades? These kinds of names have negative connotations and are usually given by ‘owners’ who want to instill fear about the dog and present themselves as some type of threat to the neighborhood. The animals could care less if they’re called Satan or Sunflower, but those anti-social names tend to have a turn-off effect on people, who already may look at these dogs as aggressive monsters. So don’t add fuel to the stupidity – get rid of those ‘bad ass’ names.
I highly agree with you! I hate these stupid names especially when they’re big dogs with “bad reputations” to begin with, I have always made a point to name my dogs normal names and based on their personalities, I’ve gone more than a week before I have formally named one of my baby’s, most of my fur kids have middle names and are called by their full names, when they’re taken to the vet everyone knows them and will always comment on their names and say how they wish more people would do the same and also not use idiotic “killer names”, would you name your kid satan??? Your pets are your children as well so treat them as such.
Both a large rottweiler and a large black lab were adopted. The lab was formerly called “Rambo” but it was changed to “Rainbow” and the rottweiler was named “Sunshine.”
Never even knew this existed, I have had a total of 5 black Dobermans in my life, two years ago we adopted a black lab/pit mix who had been found on the side of the road with her brother, they were barely 5 weeks old and her condition was so extreme they thought she would never make it, poor baby was obviosly the runt, her brother was not in such bad health, the owner showed up at the pound and stated he had no idea why she was in such a bad state, UGHHH, he agreed to surrender her in order to have the boy back, breaks our hearts to this day but she was taken in by a wonderful rescue group and later adopted, the girl brought her back and returned her for behavioral issues, in my opinion as well as the rescue group, she shouldn’t have dogs period, the issues she complained about were typical of a traumatized baby which could have easily been addressed with care and love, today she is our world and the most amazing girl ever, I went on a journey in the hopes of finding her brother so we later adopted an adorabe boy who looked just like her and black as well, he is a shar pei/pit mix and has grown to be twice her size, lol, they are inseperable, the point to my story? I am now obsessed with black dogs. We currently have 5 dogs including a wonderful 16 years young pit mix, not black and not his fault, also previously not dog friendly however with proper training and introductions, th!ose other 4 are what keep him going strong, the 2 black ones every morning lick him to death and simply adore him and he loves it. Thank you for this interesting article, hopefully this stigma can be broken with education and more lives saved!
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