dearbrew

Dear Readers

Did you know that big black dogs in shelters have the hardest time finding new homes? why? and how can you help?

Our story begins when a black Labrador Retriever named Jake, who needed to find a new home a last year, a volunteer named Delaney got involved in helping Jake to find his new forever home, but she had no idea what she was up against. Jake was being cared for by a rescue group and he had already waited nearly three years for a new home and sadly he would have to wait eight more months before Delaney was able to find him a new home.

It didn’t matter much that Jake was a friendly and lovable dog and in great health. Jake’s problem wasn’t his personallity or his health—it was the color of his coat. Jake bore the stigma of the “BBD,” an acronym used to refer to big black dogs, who are frequently passed over for flashier, prettier dogs and wind up, like Jake, waiting for years to be adopted.

“Nobody wants a black-coated dog,” rescue workers told Delaney as she tried without success to find a home for Jake. And when Delaney turned to the Internet to find Jake a new home, she found something very interesting.. that shelters all across the country were overflowing with black-coated dogs,  that nobody seem to wanted to adopt.

“Please don’t overlook our black dogs,” rescue groups pleaded on their home pages above pictures of Rottweilers, Chows and Labs sporting bright bandanas. One shelter’s website just came right out with the grim truth: “The general public is not aware of how doomed black dogs are when they are brought to a pound.”

The more Delaney learned about the numbers of black dogs in shelters, the more determined she grew to make a difference—one black dog at a time. She started by adopting Jake, the overlooked Lab. and then moved on the helping other BBD.  So Jake would only be the start of many big black dogs in Delaney’s life.

Her newly acquired information into the plight of the BBD inspired Delaney to create a website devoted only to BBD. Last November, Delaney launched www.blackpearldogs.com and named her new site “Contrary to Ordinary: The Black Pearls of the Dog World.” Since its creation, the Black Pearl Dogs website has been visited by more than 7,500 people.

“I’m starting to become a middle-person between shelters and rescues, to get their black dogs off death row,” says Delaney, whose inbox was soon filled with emails from shelters and rescue groups asking her to post pictures on her website of black dogs, who were being passed up by adoptors  .

When Amy Chase read about Delaney’s Black Pearl site on an Internet message board, she had a big black dog of her own that needed help in finding a home. Months earlier, animal control officers had dropped off Mickie, a Newfoundland mix, at the Ohio County Animal Shelter in Rising Sun, Ind., where Chase works. Looking for ways to make Mickie more interesting to those who visited the shelter, Chase highlighted his Newfoundland heritage, but even that did not work.

To  adopters, “He was just another big, black, hairy dog,”. Mickie was scheduled for euthanasia in May, so Chase contacted Delaney, who in turn posted Mickie’s picture on the Black Pearl website. She also cross-posted it on other adoption sites, including Jen Wold’s Gemini Rottweiler and Pit Bull Rescue, where Delaney had found Jake. Before long, Mickie was no longer just another black dog, but the focus of three optimistic women and their commitment to finding him a home.

Most black dogs have to rely on shelter staff and volunteers to help steer potential adaptors their way. And many shelters have taken extra steps to make black dogs more adoptable, they teach the dogs tricks and put placards on their kennels highlighting the dog’s personality (“I may just be a black dog, but I know how to balance a biscuit on my nose.”), they also make sure that multiple black dogs aren’t kenneled next to one other,  placing colorfully bandana’s on them—anything to catch the eye and imagination of potential adaptors.

 No kill shelters have had to turn away many black dogs because they can’t fill the shelter up with them,” says Jill Wimmer, shelter manager at PAWS,  in Atlanta,  she remarked that. “I have had to turned away BBD that have great temperaments and would have made wonderful new best friend.”  Sadly Wimmer knows that she can likely adopt out three dogs in the time it takes to find a home for one BBD.

How can we solve this problem?

First of all make sure to make a lifetime commitment to the pet you adopt. 

Second.. spay and neuter all your pets.

Last but not least, if your looking to add to your family, don’t pass on the BBD that is patiently waiting for you to adopt them. 

 Brew says. never judge a dog or man by color or religion. 

Have a question or subject you want information on ? then contact us.

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