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PrintBOISE, Idaho — No black cat will cross your path this Halloween if a northern Idaho animal shelter can help it.
Like many shelters around the country, the Kootenai Humane Society in Coeur d’Alene is prohibiting black cat adoptions from now to Nov. 2, fearing the animals could be mistreated in Halloween pranks — or worse, sacrificed in some satanic ritual.
The risk may be remote, said the shelter’s executive director, Phil Morgan, but if the adoption ban can “prevent one animal from getting hurt, then it serves its purpose.”
Out of 97 cats at the Idaho shelter, 28 are black, Morgan said.
However, some animal experts say the practice does more to hurt animals than protect them.
“Black cats already suffer a stigma because of their color,” said Gail Buchwald, vice president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelter in New York City.
Black cats tend to be adopted less often than other felines, Buchwald said.
“Behaviorally, there’s no difference from the color of the cat. It’s tied into this whole mythology about the animal — don’t let it cross your path or some foreboding or foreshadowing of evil — and that’s an outdated superstition,” she said.
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