Strange, but true: black dogs and cats are often the last animals to get adopted out of shelters. It’s so true, in fact, that some shelters euthanize black dogs and cats ahead of other animals who have been with them longer because they’re so difficult to re-home – which means some animals may never have even gotten the chance to find a forever family.
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Theories abound for why this happens. One is that dogs with black faces look intimidating and aggressive, another that black cats have been saddled with an “unlucky” reputation. Then there are the people who find plain black animals “boring” (whatever happened to personality??), and, of course, the excuse that they don’t photograph well.
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Photographer Emma O’Brien thinks that stinks (and it does), so she decided to change the narrative about the photography bit, at least, with this amazing series of photographs.
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O’Brian feels so strongly about shelter pets that she even wrote a book advocating for them, which you can grab here.
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Though all of the animals in this series have found their forever families, don’t worry – there’s likely to be many black pups and kitties at the shelters near you (or whatever color strikes your fancy, just don’t decide on that alone!).
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Seriously, though, if you’re in the market for a shelter animal, do some thinking ahead of time. Take into consideration your housing, your lifestyle, your activity level, and choose your new animal accordingly. Make sure to pay attention to out how they interact and how they’ll fit into your life, and remember that their looks are pretty much a bonus.
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You know, like you’re supposed to do with dating!
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Follow Emma on her website, Instagram, or Facebook if you love shelter pets and are always looking for ways to be their voice in a world full of humans!
