June 18th, 2010
One of the BBD's at the shelter this week
I began volunteering this week with a network of people who are helping rescue dogs from a very high kill, “heart stick” shelter that doesn’t have public adoptions in the city nearest our rural home.
I learned something this week about “euthanasia” in our municipal shelters and was also reminded of a syndrome affecting black dogs in those shelters.
Contrary to the belief that every shelter kills unwanted animals humanely by administering a shot, many shelters still use the gas chamber and others use the heart stick method. This has been described as an agonizing death in which the pets are stuck directly in the heart with a deadly cocktail (heart stick).
The flurry of activity by the network of animal lovers and rescuers was all consuming the night before the appointed rescue was to go and pull the lucky ones from the facility on Tuesday morning. We raised over $1,600 and the rescue was able to pull 17 of the 23 dogs at the shelter.
Great for the 17, but the odds for the six that remained dwindled to nearly 0%.
When I heard from the director of the rescue that pulled the dogs that all that were left behind were BBDs, or Big Black Dogs (mostly black and chocolate labs or lab mixes), I was reminded of the story my friend, Deb Hipp, wrote for The Bark magazine back in 2006, which I believe was the first time I heard of Big Black Dog Syndrome.
The syndrome is all too familiar to rescues and shelters, many of which try in vain to find homes for the numerous Big Black Dogs that sit waiting for their forever homes for weeks, months and in some rescues, even years.
As Deb wrote in her article, “One shelter’s website just came right out with the grim truth: The general public is not aware of how doomed black dogs are when they are brought to a pound.”
Animal experts and those who rescue have long theorized why Big Black Dogs have such a hard time finding homes. The reasons they’ve cited include:
- Superstition surrounding black dogs. Much like black cats, some people feel black dogs are bad luck or “evil.” Some also fear BBDs, thinking black dogs look more menacing or are more aggressive. There has never been any proof that this is true.
- BBD’s tend not to photograph well in dimly lit shelters, making them less attractive on Internet websites.
- Big dogs in general are just harder to place in most areas of the country.
Tamara Delaney launched Black Pearl Dogs back in 2005 as a way to help educate the public. Take a look at the site, there’s a lot of good information on Big Black Dogs.
Did you know the death rate for Big Black Dogs in shelters is much higher than that of other dogs? What do you think can be done to change the public perception?
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Tags: Big Black Dog Syndrome, Black Pearl Dogs, Debb Hipp, The Bark
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15 Responses to “Big Black Dog Syndrome”
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Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell has had dogs all of her life. Her first rescue was Hershey, a miniature black and brown Dacshund. She ruled the Campbell household until 2005 when she passed away at age 16. The case of Scruffy, a Yorkshire terrier whose torture death was videotaped in 1997, horrified the nation when the tape appeared on national news shows. Kerri began covering the trial for the local daily newspaper in Kansas City, Kansas where the crime occurred. Her investigation into animal cruelty cases led to her awareness of the puppy mill problem in that state.
How terribly sad! Our BBD was the most wonderful dog anyone could have hoped for, loving, smart and loyal. Bigotry is ugly whether it’s directed at people or dogs. And sadly, I’m sure puppy mills are breeding black Labs by the hundreds, many of which will end up in one of those horrible shelters. Thank you for bringing attention to this,Kerri. We are moving to the country soon, and a new dog is in our future. I will only get a dog that needs rescuing (no breeders for me)and I’ll make sure to try to find a BBD that needs a home.
Congratulations on your impending move, Kathleen. It is sad. There’s a big sign on some rural land between here and KC advertising “Black labs for sale. Turn right 500 feet.” (Actually, there are a lot of signs that lead to puppy mills between our home in Arkansas through Missouri), but I would just like to go and slap those people and ask them if they know how many BBDs (probably some originating from there) are waiting for the needle at shelters. It would do no good, those people don’t care. Can’t wait to see what BBD you end up with!
I didn’t know that. Poor pups
I knew black -cats- have a horrible time but didn’t realize it carried over to dogs.
Maybe shelters should start using some cutesy catch phrase for them, like “Black dogs! They go with everything!” I hate to treat them like objects to be marketed, but if it saves a life…
Our Maddie is not exactly big at 35 pounds, but she is black and she was at the shelter for six months before I adopted her. She was the favorite of the shelter workers because of her sparkling personality
but they were having a really hard time getting her adopted because everyone overlooked her for flashier dogs. And she’s the best girl ever.
So, kudos to anyone who chooses to save a life by adopting rather than buying a dog, and double kudos to anyone who rescues a BBD!
Jess, I think you’re onto something there. Shelters and rescues should use more marketing techniques in helping any pet find a forever home. This goes double for BBDs.
Allie, I don’t know the research extends to SBD’s (Small Black Dogs!) but I was wondering about small-medium sized ones myself. Maddie is a sweetie and being at the shelter for that long indicates there’s something to SBD Syndrome too. I’m glad you found each other.
My own dog is a BBD from the pound. And while these statistics where known to me, there where not the top reason I adopted him. The top reason was that Goodman is simply a great dog.
And yes, many people seem to be afraid of him.
How are the stats for brindle dogs in your area? Where I am (Israel), brindle dogs are even harder to place than BBD.
Some people think they are ugly, others say that brindle dogs remind them too much of Hyaenas so they don’t want to adopt them.
Is that something unique to Israel, or is it similar elsewhere as well?
Kerri- I know of a rescue near here that did a “black is beautiful” black dog only adoption event.
From my understanding it was pretty successful, at least for the dogs that participated.
Shoshannah,
A black is beautiful event is a great idea! I hope some shelters adopt that event!
As for the brindle dogs, I’m not sure. I’ve never heard of there being a stigma surrounding brindle dogs, but that’s interesting. I’ll have to look into that.
Kerri – We have the same problem here in our somewhat uncivilized rural area. There is an abundance of big black dogs at our local humane societies. It breaks my heart. Bless you — and the others — for the work you are doing to help them.
I’m still not sure I buy into the idea of Big Black dog syndrome. I’ve heard about it all the time — the idea that people don’t want to adopt big black dogs.
But here’s the thing, the most popular type of owned dog in the U.S. for nearly 20 years has been the Labrador Retriever — who’s most common color is black. If nobody wants big black dogs, why is a big black dog (and sometimes gold or chocolate) the most popular dog in America?
I still can’t help but think that one of the reasons there are so many BBDs at the shelter is because there are so many of them to start with. Incidentally, as someone who does pit bull rescue, I often hear that people don’t want to adopt pit bulls — and yet, they’re generally recognized as the 2nd most popularly owned dog in the U.S. So if no one wants them, why do so many people have them?
It doesn’t quite add up to me…and I can’t help but think we’re marketing them all wrong.
There are a lot of BBDs in the world and in the shelters, Brent. So, yes, part of the issue is the shear numbers anyway. However, I’ve interviewed dozens of shelter directors and probably hundreds of rescues over the years and they’ve all told me the same thing, when a BBD is in a shelter, they have the least likely chance of coming out alive. As for the pits, I saw an astonishing stat last week. Only 1 in 600 pits find a lasting home that will keep them the rest of their lives. Again, sheer numbers in what is available. There is still a HUGE perception out there that pit bulls are menacing, man eating beasts. When they end up in the shelter, especially, people do not want to take the chance not knowing the background. People need to adopt, not shop.
I’m not saying it isn’t true – but I’d sure love to see some real data on it. There always seem to be a lot of commonly held beliefs in sheltering that are passed on from person-to-person with little to no data that actually backs it up. Is it possible they FEEL this way because it seems like there are always BBDs there?
I’ve seen the 1 in 600 pits numbers as well — but never seen any supporting evidence for it. It seems mathematically impossible. Figure that on an annual basis about 800,000 pit bulls are killed in shelters — so if that 1 in 600 number is correct, then that would mean on average every shelter in the entire nation would only place 1,333 pit bulls into forever homes — that doesn’t sound like it’s even in the ballpark of the right number.
Again, not saying it’s right or wrong, but I’ve heard a lot of these things over the years and most don’t seem to be based on anything more substantial than I heard it from someone else.
And it’s a good thing to be dubious, especially as a writer.
Thanks for the input, Brent. I think we have to take into consideration these are best guess estimates. Actually, I believe the number of pets killed in shelters is much higher than the estimates I’m seeing. When I wrote my first story on puppy mills in 2000, I got a figure of 10 million. A decade later, I think it’s the HSUS estimating 2-3 million. I know we’ve come a long way. There’s more awareness, more rescues pulling animals. But still, I see literally hundreds of pets on my feed every single day in kill shelters on the the “euth” list. I saw a number close to 800 killed in the Joplin, Mo. shelter just in the month of June. No back up for the data, except that it was posted by a rescue pulling from that shelter begging people to help pull some of the dogs. Whatever the real numbers are, it’s still too many. Thanks for reading and engaging in the conversation!
I’ve not seen anyone claiming 2-3 million. Most estimates I’m seeing now are around 4-4.5 million (the No Kill Advocacy Center, Maddies Fund and HSUS are all in this neighborhood). Still too many, but definitely better than the 10 million a decade ago.
Seems as if ‘pit bulls’ and feral cats are the majority of it and many of their problems are fixable with some law and policy changes.
The Joplin situation is a mess. I have no idea how they are impounding so many animals down there.
Have no idea what’s going on there, Brent, but they are a gassing facility as well.