From now until Sept. 30, the Heritage Humane Society is experiencing a “Blackout.” As a part of this month’s Blackout promotion, all black kittens, dogs and adult cats are available at a lower adoption fee.
Black dogs are available for $25 and all felines are $5 each. According to a humane society news release, all of the pets come spayed, neutered, vaccinated and micro-chipped.
The society’s Director of Communications & Outreach Michael Rhodes says the program is taking place because a walk-through of the shelter showed 54 out of 170 animals in the shelter were black. Rhodes said the program is just as much about “busting myths” as it is about making room in the shelter.
“We hear it a lot in the animal welfare world,” he said. “If you visit a lot of shelters, one of the first things folks in the program will bring up is that people won’t adopt black cats.”
Though cats comprise about 70 percent of the shelter’s black-animal population, Rhodes said it’s not because people don’t adopt black cats. Instead, he said, it’s just business as usual.
The gene that codes for a black coat in both cats and dogs, he said, is dominant. So there are naturally more black animals in the shelters. Rhodes said the higher number of black cats is due to a normal larger proportion of cats than dogs.
“We always have about two to three more cats than dogs in our shelter,” Rhodes said.
The Heritage Humane Society is located at 430 Waller Mill Road in Williamsburg.
