Greenhill reinstates black cat adoptions.

Byline: Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

Following a growing trend in animal welfare circles, this year the Greenhill Humane Society isn't holding black cats and kittens back from adoption during the Halloween season.

Many animal welfare groups have come to believe that black animals really don't run any greater risk of mistreatment this time of year, and that "if we hold them back from adoption, many animals may lose their chance for a new home," said Theresa Iverson, operations director at Greenhill.

All-black dogs and cats often have a harder time competing for the attention of potential adoptive families, partly because they don't stand out in the crowd and also because of their numbers, Iverson said.

"About one-fourth of our population in the cattery is black right now," and that's fairly typical, she said. "Black is a very strong, dominant color (genetically), so we often do have more black dogs and cats than most other colors."

For years, animal welfare officials hesitated to place black animals in new homes around Halloween because of a fear that they would be subjected to satanic or other occult rites associated with their color.

It's not clear exactly how many shelters still ban black cat adoptions during the Halloween season, said Kim Intino, director of animal sheltering issues for The Humane Society of the United States. But Intino said it's a trend that seems to be fading, along with the once-common bans on bunny adoptions around Easter or puppy adoptions as Christmas gifts.

``If there were people out there performing rituals with animals, then I would think that Halloween would be a time for that, but a good adoption process would tend to weed that out,'' Intino said. ``There's going to be incidents of weird abuse that happen no matter what. The remedy is not banning black cat adoptions.''

Thorough evaluation is important to safeguard the well-being of all animals available for adoption, and Greenhill tries to be stringent in its screening, Iverson said.

"By bringing up the Halloween thing, it's sort of contributing to the hype," she said. "We really don't know of any real incidents where there's been a problem of this kind."

In fact, cats and dogs - regardless of color - face much more serious problems during holidays from unaccustomed noise, open doors and distractions, Iverson said.

"When you have a holiday like Halloween, with kids screaming, hollering and running down the street, that's not a common occurrence and it can be very frightening to dogs and cats," she said.

Pets should be kept inside while the costumed kiddies are on the prowl, preferably isolated in rooms where they don't have access to the constant opening and closing of doors, which might make them nervous or allow them to escape, Iverson said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.