Before sending it out, perhaps the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter brass should have read aloud its press release advertising “Black is Beautiful” week – the disastrously dubbed program (referred to in an earlier post from Kimberly Reeves) offering “a discounted adoption fee of $25 for all black dogs or cats from June 14 to 20, 2008.” If they had read it aloud, Director Sheryl Schneider and public information officer Connie Watson – who wrote the release and issued it to local media June 11 – might have realized that such a tone-deaf missive would strike a very sour note the week of Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of Texas slaves after the Civil War.
“Typically, black animals are harder to adopt from shelters, so we have a good selection of great animals that are eligible for the reduced adoption fee,” trumpeted Schneider in a release issued at 11:08am Wednesday. A second released followed at 3:11pm stating: “Due to unanticipated controversy regarding a recent discount adoption promotion on black dogs and cats, the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter has suspended the program.”
Indeed, as the the day unfolded, an outcry resounded coast to coast. Locally, NAACP President Nelson Linder condemned the program in a KXAN report as follows: “You don’t take a cultural statement symbolic of
people’s progress politically, socially, and otherwise and put it on an ad for an animal shelter.” Moreover, Linder identified the program’s deeper meaning and attendant hazard – as a devaluation of the color black, the
program perpetuated a still-potent stereotype. On the West Coast, the Seattle Times reported that Linder said the program was the result of people living in “small worlds.”
Unfortunately, Schneider dug herself woefully deeper in the Times article, outlandishly pontificating on how black pet “facial expressions” influence perceptions. “People choose other animals over the black cats and dogs for a variety of reasons, including superstition, fears of aggression and complaints that people can’t see the animals’ facial expressions as well,” Schneider said, adding, “I think it is very unfair to the dogs and cats that are here.” Still digging for deliverance, Schneider stated in the second press release that “while there are no formal studies, animal shelters and rescue groups nationwide find that black dogs and cats are under-adopted. … The truth is that
these animals are just as friendly and loveable and need good homes.”
Perhaps she’s offering WilCo’s version of a cultural news flash? Or just throwing a self-serving bone to critics? On the East Coast, in fact, in an Associated Press article published at NJ.com, a defeated, but obviously oblivious, Schneider categorically dismissed the
whole affair as “just bad timing,” and resolved to make future announcements “less specific.”
This article appears in June 6 • 2008.