With every October comes attention to all those black cats and even cat lovers do not spare black cats on Halloween. Often mistreated, centuries of ignorance and superstition have led to shelters’ not allowing the adoption of specifically black cats during Halloween days. They have been extensively mistreated over the years and are labeled as unlucky and satanic.
Not only black cats but other colored cats have myths and false beliefs associated with them. Orange cats are said to be more laid back, while tortoiseshell cats are thought to be more aloof.
In this war, even cat lovers do not spare cats from labeling and associating superstitious beliefs with their color. They judge their feline companion by not their personalities but by the color of coats they wear.
Not many understand and think about how deadly these small judgments can be to your feline pets. According to a research study, dark-colored cats are put down (killed) more often in comparison to light-colored cats.
Cat Personality by Color – Racism in Cats
Tortoiseshell cats are believed to have an attitude, more like ‘tortitude.’ According to a study, where a survey was done by 189 people, it showed a significantly diverse perspective of how people associate personality traits with the color of the cat.
According to most of the answers, a personality trait of friendliness was generally attributed to orange-colored cats. In contrast, intolerance was associated with tortoiseshell ones, and white and tri-colored cats were perceived as more aloof.
According to the people surveyed, white cats are shyer, calmer, and detached than other cats, and that there is no bold and active touch in them.
How Racism Affects Cats?
Discriminating cats based on the color of their coats are considered harmless and discarded as ‘just a matter of color taste.’ While the racism in cats is not as damaging and crushing as in humans, it does affect a cat’s behavior.
Relying Too Much on Cat Colors and Personality? Not a Good Idea!
The most disheartening example of racism against cats is in Turkey, where people specifically think of white cats as pure breeds and therefore protect these cats from breeding with different colored cats, which according to them are ‘inferior’ colored cats.
The white cat belief is so extreme that a university in Turkey, Van Yüzüncü Yıl, has even established a program dedicated to encouraging people to breed more white cats. The program is fully supported by the Turkish government as well.
This program and establishment of a belief is a bad idea because the gene that makes complete white coats of a cat is connected to the loss of hearing ability in cats, and that is why most of the white acts are born deaf. Breeding and encouraging the population of more white cats are further creating more cats with a hearing disability that then suffer all their lives.
Cat’s Life Depends on the Color of the Coat it Bears
Cats are prohibited from roaming freely on the streets and thus are taken in by shelter and then put up for adoption. If a cat’s color is considered unattractive and is not adopted in a matter of specified time, it is then killed.
Every year millions of cats are killed that are neither old nor ill but just based on the color of their coats, they are put down. In all this, black cats, according to studies, are considered the most suffering due to discrimination.
The mentioned discriminations of judging a cat by its coat color are enough to prove why judging a cat by its color is wrong in so many ways.
There is absolutely no relationship between a cat’s color with its attained personality!
There is still no knowledge of where these biases have come from, prompting cat lovers to discriminate against cats by their skin. Still, these myths fuel racism further directed towards innocent felines.
False studies have a minor role to play in this world of discrimination against cats as certain studies have stated that tortoiseshell cats are more aggressive, which was majorly reported by Livestream media.
Although there are bad science studies, there is very limited research on correlating a cat’s personality traits with its fur coat’s color to truly believe in.
We often forget that cats are an individual species. Like humans, every cat demonstrates and attains different personalities and temperaments.
While some cats are born with certain traits like dominancy, shyness, fearfulness or aggressiveness, etc., the nature of human interactions influences cats’ behavior. But that does not mean that cats with different colors should have generalized traits distinguished by colors.
The different species of cats who live on streets or domestic cats show similar personality types. Some cats are shy and fearful, and some are bold, extroverted, and social. While cats are great hunters, some of them turn out to be terrible ones.
What can be deduced by the above analysis is that cats’ behavior depends on the past experiences, situations, and environment that they have lived through. Suppose a cat is being given food every day. In that case, it will be a terrible hunter, or if a cat has been given an environment where it interacts with other cats, it will be a social and extroverted cat.
Final Word – Don’t Judge a Cat by its Color
Distinguishing the personality and behavior of cats according to the coat color is absurd and pointless. Neither are there any authentic studies, nor do cats behave according to their coat color.
In a world where people strive for knowledge and education, stereotyping black cats with bad luck serves no purpose for your years of education. Black cats are equally innocent and have nothing to do with your future fortune.
Put an end to colorism and racism in cats and let them live in a toxic-free environment regardless of their coat complexion.
