Selfies are bad news for black cats, says the RSPCA

BLACK cats are reportedly being abandoned in droves because they don’t look good in selfies, the UK’s RSPCA says.

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BLACK cats are reportedly being abandoned in droves because they don’t look good in selfies, the UK’s RSPCA says.

The animal welfare organisation says 70 per cent of the more than 1000 cats in the UK without homes are black or black and white. And it appears that the internet and those countless cat pictures and videos might be to blame.

“In UK folklore, black cats symbolise good luck, yet sadly in reality they are not so lucky,” an RSPCA spokesman said. “There are a number of reasons for this, ranging from the fact that black cats are harder to tell apart than cats with more distinctive markings and the fact that black animals tend not to photograph as well.”

Animal charity Blue Cross said it had seen a 65 per cent rise in the number of black cats it took in each year between 2007 and 2013.

“We had some photos of a single eight-week-old tabby kitten on our Facebook page and received around 30 calls in two days from people keen to adopt him,” a spokesman told The Telegraph.

“We had maybe one call in relation to the black kittens which were posted for rehoming on the same day.”

Originally published as Selfies are bad news for black cats, says the RSPCA