Black Dog Syndrome

In the picture above is my brother's full-blooded black lab. His name is Jack and we call him "Black Jack" for fun. Jack is an adoptive rescue from the Franklin County Animal Shelter.

Nobody knows why Jack was in the shelter or who gave him up. My brother adopted him from the shelter after Jack had lived 3 months out of his 12 month life in the shelter.

Black Labs have long been known as prime examples of man's best friend and Jack is a typical black lab. Jack is friendly and loyal, completely house-broke and runs around the house holding his stuffed animal all the time. If someone comes to the door he barks loudly to let the family know someone is there and he loves to play in the back yard. Jack has become a very loved member of our family.

So after hearing this story, take a guess at what kind of dog is euthanized more than other kind of dog in shelters all across America?

Sick dogs? No. Dogs that are severely injured? Nope. Ferocious Dogs? Wrong again. The answer is black dogs. Any dog with a black coat including labrador retriever's like Jack.

Black dogs like Jack above get left in shelters longer than any other kind of dog and are therefore euthanized more than any other dog.

The problem has become so severe that is now commonly known as Black Dog Syndrome

Today, people are still not positive why black dogs do not get adopted but there are many educated theories on the subject which I happen to agree with.

The first theory is that a few types of black breeds have been ostrisized on television as ferocious dogs. These types of black dogs including doberman's and rotweilers are portrayed as "junk yard attack dogs" in movies making people predigious against these particular breeds. While this does not affect adoptions with Labradors and other breeds of black dogs it definitely has had a major impact on adoptions for breeds like the Rottweiler because people believe they are scary and viscious when in fact they are the exact opposite.

The second theory is that black dogs (do to their dark black coat) are not seen as well in dimly lit shelters. People fall in love with cute faces and facial expressions on lighter colored dogs that often make them look very cute cannot be seen as easily on a black dog with a black mouth and black eyebrows. Black dogs very commonly grow white or gray hairs and it is believed that people often misinterpret young black dogs for older black dogs because of this.

Whatever the reason for Black Dog Syndrome we hope you consider a black dog during your next visit to your local rescue or animal shelter.

Article contributed by Stop The Suffering volunteer Matt Ferguson
Matt Ferguson is the former programmer and webmaster for Stop the Suffering. During the day Matt is the owner and founder of CoreDrive Computer Systems (http://www.coredrive.net) and the software architect for Paulson Computer Systems. Matt is an avid dog lover and owns 2 mixed retrievers including a rescue from Stop The Suffering.