Some of Man's Best Friends Are Black

[BPSCG]

Link (http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/06/12/0612dogs.html)
A promotion by the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter to boost the adoption of black-coated dogs and cats that coincided with the week of Juneteenth has drawn criticism for being racially insensitive.

The shelter has halted its "Black is Beautiful" Week planned for Saturday through June 20 after the president of the Austin chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People raised concerns in the media.

"We apologize if our promotion to reduce fees on black dogs and cats offended anyone," shelter Director Cheryl Schneider said in a statement.

The shelter, which is in Georgetown, had planned to reduce adoption fees for black-coated animals to $25 during the week. The normal fee for adoption is $85, county spokeswoman Connie Watson said.

Nelson Linder, president of the Austin NAACP, said it was a "violation" to use "Black is Beautiful" as a promotion for an animal shelter and that the shelter was right to halt the promotion. The phrase became popular during the 1960s civil rights movement as a way to promote equality and African American self-esteem.FWIW, the black cat in the story looks like Samoa, one of our cats, who regularly demonstrates to us that while black may be beautiful, it can also be dumber than a bag of wrenches.

[bluess]

Do not malign the black feline. Especially the one which falls asleep in the back corner of the closet, becoming invisible and thereby causing great consternation that he has managed to get outside and become fox-food. Or the other one who has not yet figured out the snarfing down food as quickly as possible always results in barfing it up just as quickly.

[crackers]

Go ahead and malign the one who can't figure out that sleeping on the stairs that have dark red carpeting is not a good idea, since it is difficult for people to see - and therefore avoid stepping on - a black cat on dark red carpeting at night. That one deserves to be maligned.

[BPSCG]

"We apologize if our promotion to reduce fees on black dogs and cats offended anyone," shelter Director Cheryl Schneider said in a statement.Don't you love that?

The shelter has trouble finding homes for black dogs and cats, so it decides to get rid of the excess inventory by putting them on sale, instead of the time-honored method of killing them.

People are offended by the name of the promotion and the shelter is forced to call it off. So we can expect that more animals will be killed because it is better to kill a puppy or a kitten than it is to offend a PICO.

This struck me, too:
Nelson Linder, president of the Austin NAACP, said it was a "violation" to use "Black is Beautiful" as a promotion for an animal shelter and that the shelter was right to halt the promotion.A "violation?" Violation of what? Is "Black is Beautiful" copyrighted or trademarked?

[BlackCat]

Geez, we did the same thing, except we went through with it. Here (2nd from the bottom). (http://oddorama.com/2008/01/28/why-do-weird-animal-stories-all-seem-to-happen-at-once/) Sorry, that's the best link I could find. It just happened to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. It's sad that people get offended, but sadder that people won't adopt a animals based on how they look. I guess I'm weird, I adopted my cats based on their personality.

[Piscivore]

They should have an auction instead.

[BPSCG]

They should have an auction instead.Except some jurisdictions have really anal rules regarding adoptions (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060802239.html)...

[billydkid]

Link (http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/06/12/0612dogs.html)
FWIW, the black cat in the story looks like Samoa, one of our cats, who regularly demonstrates to us that while black may be beautiful, it can also be dumber than a bag of wrenches.That's just what this country needs more of - people whining about and being offended and "victimized" by nothing. The problem with this kind of thing is it trivializes those instances when people truly are victimized.

[Piscivore]

That's just what this country needs more of - people whining about and being offended and "victimized" by nothing. The problem with this kind of thing is it trivializes those instances when people truly are victimized.

Too right. It almost makes me want to get a black cat on sale and call it "Nyouknowwhat".

[articulett]

I recently lost my 14 year old "Negress tigress". She was a gem.

When I fostered animals for the Humane Society, we wouldn't put the black cats up for adoption around Halloween because of some people supposedly doing cruel things to them.

I think the ad sounded like a good idea. As a person who often wears black, I can assure you that black pet fur blends in better with most anything than white pet fur. White pet fur on your pillow ends up making you look greyer in the morning.

[fuelair]

That's just what this country needs more of - people whining about and being offended and "victimized" by nothing. The problem with this kind of thing is it trivializes those instances when people truly are victimized.
Yep!!:)

[Complexity]

Politically correct idiots.

Love cats.

Not idiots.

[gtc]

I guess I'm weird, I adopted my cats based on their personality.

My mother adopted her new cat because she thought no one else would adopt a cat with such a snarky personality.

[Redtail]

I guess I'm weird, I adopted my cats based on their personality.

So did my fiancee... Granted the cats mom licked a sheet of acid while she was pregnant with her.

http://forums.randi.org/imagehosting/thum_1204446993359317c1.jpg (http://forums.randi.org/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=7030)

[tkingdoll]

Ha ha that cat should be playing duelling banjos!

Seriously though, I've never come across issues with black-coated animals being less popular before. Is that just a USA thing, I wonder.

[Ron_Tomkins]

Screw this. I tried putting a link here to a funny website but I can't because one of the keywords from the URL is being automatically censored by the system. God knows I tried (if there is one).

So now, you're left with no joke site. Bye.

[bigred]

Damn you racist hate-ah crackas. You're just insensitive to all the oppression by the MAN, and all the victimized blacks denied jobs and drinking fountains and their womens being raped by honky because blah etc blah...affirmative action isn't racist....*dribble drool*

Yknow I'd laugh at this latest of only about a billion examples of the mind-numbing stupidity that is the race card in this country if it didn't mean the senseless deaths of innocent animals in the name of not offending whiny aholes just begging to be offended.

Can't we just euthanize them? To say it would make more sense is a gross understatement.

(cue the race card)

[articulett]

nUpj7aUtVBw

[tkingdoll]

The animals aside, why would black people want to make animal coat colour a race issue? Isn't that rather degrading?

Black-coated animals exist. For some reason they are less popular pets and so there is an issue. And that issue can't be solved by drawing attention to it, because some human beings have dark brown skin? Huh?