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- [Woman] I had always wanted a dog. I had joked that my first dog would be
a Basset Hound named Zeppelin. So when I saw a puppy actually
named Zeppelin up for adoption, I took it as a sign.
He wasn't a Basset Hound but a black Lab mix, a real mutt.
The first time I got to see Zeppelin was on one of those adoption trucks in New York,
five years ago. There were many small fluffy lap dogs with kids banging on the
glass and those dogs were getting all the attention. And there was one black dog,
a little older and bigger than the rest, napping through all of it.
Zeppelin came from a high kill shelter in the south. And I was told
no one wanted him. When I met Zepp, there was nothing not to like.
He was friendly, calm, goofy with an underbite,
and just damn cute. In our minds, Zeppelin was a catch
and we wanted to bring him home. But what if we hadn't adopted Zeppelin?
What would have happened to him? And what happens to other black dogs
like him? It's called black dog syndrome. The notion that black dogs
are adopted last, euthanized first. They're overlooked in shelters and killed
more frequently than dogs of any other color. Zeppelin was born in a cage
and the only time he was going to leave it was to be put down.
- [Sarah] Five years ago, when Zeppelin was a small, adorable,
little puppy with his underbite, and he was looking for a home,
he couldn't find an adopter. And it was the strangest thing because
he was a beautiful puppy. He just happened to be black.
- At the time, I wasn't sure what black had to do with it. I needed to find out.
I reached out to Heather C. Lum, a professor based in Philadelphia.
Heather had done numerous studies related to dog color and likeability,
including a study where she presented subjects with an image of Labrador dogs.
- [Heather] The yellow Lab was considered the most friendly, most adoptable,
most likely to want to be around children, things like that. Chocolate Lab was a
little bit less so. And then once we got to the black lab, they are far less
likely to be considered adoptable, far more likely to be considered
aggressive or less friendly, all based on color.
- Less friendly, these subjects haven't met Zepp. Here's Zeppelin with my
seven-month-old baby, as loving and gentle as can be.
While some people are scared of black cats because they are associated with bad luck,
others are terrified of black dogs because they assume they're violent,
how depressing. From The Hounds of Baskerville to Harry Potter,
black dogs have long been associated with evil. Even the common "beware of dog"
sign, depicts a big black dog, teeth bared, and eyes bulging.
- [George] People associate dark colored dogs and black dogs with some
sort of aggressor. You know, there's never a cute movie where it's a black dog.
Lassie is very light-colored, you know. All the jokes aside,
those same kind of stereotypes apply into the canine world. The black dog
is usually like a Doberman chasing you down the street
and, like, tearing the bad guys, like, the seat of his pants.
- [Suzanna] In general, there have been...people think of black
animals as just scarier. I think they're, like, in movies and t.v. shows,
where if you have an evil animal, they're often dark and black.
And I think that can, kind of, play into what maybe already preconceived
notions around breed or what a dog looks like.
- I have physically watched people get nervous and get scared when
crossing the street. But we've had him for so long that he's family.
that I just kind of laugh it off now.
- Fact, not even 100 years ago,
Winston Churchill named his depression "black dog." And it remains a scientific
term in mental health. I'm not sure what Churchill was thinking.
Zeppelin always cheers me up. Dogs like Zeppelin are dependent on rescue
groups who go into high kill shelters in the south and pull them out into other
cities like New York and L.A., where they have a greater chance
of being adopted. Social Tees based in New York
was the rescue group who found Zeppelin.
- [Lashley] Dogs just like Zeppelin come from an organization in Tennessee that
we work with, along with other rescues, to pull in all of the puppies
and dogs that, again, are either abandoned or have been
in high kill shelters and puppy mills.
- So they will be taking the black dogs, often litters of black puppies.
There could be eight-week-old puppies that are beautiful. And they're going to be
large or small, whatever size. But it's just because they're black,
nobody is interested in them.
- [Zarina] I'm told by shelter managers, "This is a black dog."
I know what that means. This dog will have less time and less
opportunity to be adopted locally because they're just not going to risk the chance
of having this dog in a kennel longer than it needs to be,
when they have an overpopulation of incoming dogs.
- Almost every rescue group I met with had a story about how black dogs
are at a higher risk.
- [Rachael] A dog named Captain had been in the shelter since he was
six months old. And he was three and a half, so literally in the shelter
for three years. And he was a, probably, 80 pound, 75, 80, pound black pit bull.
People would have passed by and see this giant black pit bull who had been there
for three years and assume, well, something must be wrong with him.
The longer dogs are in rescue or in the shelter, the more people assume that.
So it just makes it harder for them as, you know, as they're with us longer.
But Captain got adopted. He went into a foster home.
And he got adopted in two weeks.
- [Eva] Had we not rescued Wedge, even though I believe he was the sweetest
dog at the shelter. We used him for temp testing for days, and he passed every test
with flying colors. I don't see that he would have gotten out because their local
adoption rate is probably in single digits, like maybe 1%, 2%, 3%.
You're much more likely to survive if you are white, or if you're fluffy,
or if you're small, or if you have brown spots. But a black dog, not so lucky.
- So what would have happened to him?
- He would have been euthanized.
- It's also true that there are so many black lab mixes and pit bull mixes
down south, that, you know, if you just have a row of black dogs,
I guess, in people's minds, they don't become individuals anymore.
It's just a sea of black dogs. And it's just one pen after that, the black dog,
black... You know, I think people just, again, they don't see the individual.
They just see another black dog. Black dog, black dog, black dog.
Well, look at that cute white dog, you know?
- Everyone I spoke to, from dog owners to rescue groups, believe that one of the
main reasons black dogs have a hard time is because they just don't
photograph well. I know better than to try to take a picture of Zeppelin at night.
He's a black blob. He blends in to the couch. And it's hard to see his features
in a quick snapshot. A few times, I almost sat on him accidentally.
- When you go to shelters, very often, you know, the lighting is very poor.
You know, it's very dark. And a black dog just doesn't
stick out as will a white dog in that environment.
- When we pull dogs from the south, you get one crappy photo
that's texted to you. The dog is often petrified, ears back, and looks nothing
like the dog that I get after I fully vetted and transported them
up from the south. And with black dogs, the photos are terrible.
- When you photograph a black dog, it's really hard to see their expression,
whereas dogs that have multiple colors, and textures, and, you know, are fuzzy,
or what not, those read a lot better online and that is in the
initial impact of where you meet your dog.
- When we have a black dog in the program, we are prepared to do many more things
to get that dog adopted, to advertise the dog,
to have him/her professionally photographed, groomed.
We dress them up to make them look friendlier, softer, always have kids
and people around them, and just we have to do much more to push that black dog
than any other dog. I know the number of black dogs that we come across that
are just simply not adopted. And I know they have a limited amount of time.
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- [Shaina] I think shelters have a hard time promoting black dogs.
Because shelters are really busy. They have a lot of work to do.
And getting a great picture isn't always the priority.
- Working with rescue groups in New York, Shaina created
the overlooked black dogs project.
- I started the project because I wanted to bring awareness to the issue.
If you're getting hundreds of dogs in a day or a week, you can't spend
more than a few minutes taking a great picture.
- Today, Zeppelin gets to be the star.
- I thought showcasing these beautiful dogs
against the black background, well, most people would think that
you wouldn't be able to see a black dog. So really being able to highlight the
beauty of those dogs and show that you can take pictures,
beautiful pictures of black dogs.
- I didn't know black dog syndrome was a thing when I first got a dog.
But the fact remains that according to a study published in 2010,
over 50% of black dogs are euthanized a year.
- I know, just from my own experience with my dog, Ozzy. He turned
out to be gorgeous, and shiny, and happy, and healthy, and a great dog,
no different than any other dog in the shelter.
Just because of his color, he was was overlooked.
- You know, I have a black pit bull and I think combination of his color
and his breed, make people feel really afraid of him on the street.
Like, I've run into a lot of people who have literally crossed the street when
we see him walking by. And they just have no idea that he's the friendliest.
- I remember when I first saw Zeppelin in that adoption truck. Back then,
I was looking for a dog with the right personality, who would belong in our home,
just like this little dog Joplin.
I don't know what would have happened to Zeppelin
if we hadn't stumbled across him that day on the adoption truck.
I don't want to imagine his story ending any other way.
He's black. He's beautiful. And he belongs with us.
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