ENGLAND – A cat rehoming centre is claiming that for the first time ever all its felines are black – because they don’t look good in selfies.
A rescue shelter located in Bishopston, Bristol, currently has 40 cats under its care and not one of them is ginger or tabby.
The Moggery centre founder, whose name is Christine Bayka, says it is not because they are traditionally associated with superstition, bad luck or witchcraft.
Instead, however, the 67-year-old says they are being rejected by prospective owners because darker cats photograph badly and so don’t look good in selfies.
Christine decided to set up cat re-homing centre The Moggery 21 years ago, and says the situation is worse now than it has ever been.
She went on to say: “It’s worse now because black cats don’t show up in selfies.
“Now everybody wants to take selfies and put them on Facebook. It’s a very narcissistic use of social media.
“It happens all the time, I will go through all the questions and say ‘are you flexible about colour?’ Then they will say, ‘yes, as long as it’s not black.’
“It’s an increasing problem, it wasn’t like this 20 years ago.
“Over 20 years of having difficulty rehoming black cats, it’s definitely got harder because of selfies.”
Another rescue centre for cats echoed this same idea and said that black felines are always the last to be adopted because people want a pet that ‘looks better’ on Facebook and Instagram.
Amy Buckle, who is the branch manager at the Last Chance Animal Rescue Centre in New Romney, Kent, said she currently cares for 12 cats and five are black.
She stated: “We always have the most difficulty re-homing black cats.
“Even when we have a litter of all black kittens, as soon as you have a fluggy ginger kitten, that’s it – people don’t want to know about the black cats.
“I don’t know if it’s because people don’t think they look as pretty in photos – it could well be. It’s a real shame.
“People do these days seem caught up in taking photos and putting them on Facebook and Instagram, and they want almost a model animal that they can put across social media.
“It does leave the black cats ignored for some reason. It seems people find them boring.
“When people come in to meet the cats quite often they will just bypass and walk straight past the black cats to a fluffy, ginger cat.
“It’s really, really sad.”
In preparation for ‘kitten season’ – which is between April and September – The Moggery is encouraging owners of black cats in Bristol to take their cats to be neutered in February, with the charity covering the cost, in order to prevent more unwanted black kittens being born.
Christine went on to add: “We are trying to get people to neuter their black cats in February. It’s important young black cats are neutered before they get any big ideas.”
At the Last Chance Animal Rescue Centre they have had one black cat for a year-and-a-half, and many of their long-term foster carers will only rehome black cats, to keep up with demand.
