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Walter Hetzel, director of the Temple Animal Services, said it is common knowledge among animal control professionals that it is difficult to find homes for large black dogs.
“Every shelter does have the problem with big black dogs,” Hetzel said. “Even though many of the big black dogs we get are almost perfect pets, it’s just harder to find homes for them.”
In other words, much like the Three Dog Night song, “It Ain’t Easy” being a big black dog.
Although neither Hetzel nor Marianne Moon, vice president and foster coordinator for the Association for a Pet Adoption Center, known locally by the acronym APAC, could cite scientific studies why big black dogs are hard to adopt out, both agree the phenomenon exists. According to Hetzel, it even has an informal, if uncreative, name.
“It is an industry-wide, known problem and it’s generally referred to as ‘the big black dog syndrome,’” Hetzel said.
APAC runs a foster program in conjunction with the shelter where hard-case dogs that have been spayed or neutered and have been at the shelter for a long period of time are put in foster homes.
Since the Temple animal shelter does not euthanize animals that have been spayed or neutered, sometimes the animals, and in particularly big black dogs, have a long stay ahead of them. That is where the APAC foster program comes into play.
“About 80 percent of my foster animals are black, or dark in color,” Ms. Moon says of APAC’s dogs, which come from the shelter.
“I don’t know if it’s because of superstition, or that they are harder to photograph. I don’t know what the problem is, but they seem to be the last ones to find a home,” Ms. Moon said.
“The darker the animal it is, it’s more likely that it gets overlooked,” she said.
The foster program is in its second year and has found homes for 31 dogs and seven cats, she said.
“Our foster care program is filled with big black dogs,” he said. “In fact, if we pick a dog (for the foster program) that’s not big and black, it becomes a big joke that we’ve got an oddball in the foster care program.”
He said reasons for the dogs’ lack of popularity vary.
“There are lots of theories that seem to be logical, like big, black-colored dogs appearing more threatening by appearance,” he said. “They are more ominous looking - there is just sort of a primal hesitation in approaching a large, dark-colored animal.”
Hetzel said that the “big” part of the big black dog syndrome plays an important role in the overall adoptability factor of a dog.
“Rural people, who have several acres of land where dogs have plenty of room to romp and play, are more likely to take a large dog than a small dog,” he said.
In the city though, things are different.
“Especially in the city, smaller dogs are preferred over larger dogs by most people,” Hetzel said, since yards also tend to be small.
But, he said, a large dog that also has the misfortune to be black faces a double whammy.