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Big Black Dog Syndrome

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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