- April 28, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Animal shelters used to lock their black cats in back rooms away from the public around Halloween, afraid cult members would take the cats and sacrifice them in satanic rituals.
These days, though, Director Amy Wade-Carotenuto and the Flagler Humane Society aren't going to be so shy. In fact, to celebrate black and orange kitties, the Humane Society is offering a special: People who bring in a pet treat or toy Oct. 25 to 31 can adopt a black, orange or black-and-orange tortoiseshell cat for $10 instead of the shelter’s usual adoption fee of $65.
"Shelters used to stop all black cat adoptions because of the old wives tale that satanic cults would come in and adopt them. Now we realize we were being too protective,” Wade-Carotenuto said.
Because fewer cats were being adopted out under the old policy, she said, no-kill shelters had less room to take in more cats from shelters that euthanize animals. The policy designed to save cats from possible death at the hands of possible satanic cults instead ensured their death at the hands of shelters.
And although the practice of suspending all black cat adoptions over Halloween was standard when Wade-Carotenuto worked at shelters back in the 1980s and is still followed in many places today, there isn’t much evidence the shelters' fear of satanic cat abuse over Halloween had any basis in fact.
Isolated reports of cats killed or mutilated over Halloween have generally turned out to be the work of animals like coyotes, disturbed teens acting out Halloween myths, or animal abusers acting without regard to the season or holiday.
A 1993 document posted on the National Criminal Justice Research Service’s website lists animal mutilations, including mutilation of cats, as possible evidence of local satanic cult activity, but makes no mention of organized cat abuse around Halloween.
Wade-Carotenuto said reputable shelters like the Flagler Humane Society have a screening process to ensure pets don’t land in the hands of abusers, satanic cult members included.
“Everyone that comes in and does an adoption today gives us their driver's license and goes through the adoption process,” she said. “The idea that satanic cult members are going to come in and do all that is just not realistic.”
The Flagler Humane Society is located at 1 Shelter Drive in Palm Coast and open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, visit http://www.flaglerhumanesociety.org/ or call 445-1814.
