There are many forms and variations of art and expression across the globe. There is drawing, painting, pottery, music, dance, photography, poems, novels, and many more forms. Many times, these art forms provide ways to bring communities of people together. These can be for social movements, religious communities, music communities, ethnic communities, or even something as insignificant seeming as, say, a Pokémon Go community. These various artistic creations can be discovered and spread very quickly across social media platforms through pictures, videos, audio files, and simple text to help to build and solidify these communities. Personally, I believe that makes social media in itself a sort of art. At the very least, it has a high potential to be wielded as one. Each day, thousands upon thousands of people are exposed to many different posts and communication regarding these art forms on social media platforms, and I am no exception.
Recently, just scrolling through the never ending stream of Instagram posts, something has caught my attention more so than other things. It was a post regarding the nature of black cats. It was a very simple seeming post too: a couple of pictures of and a caption. The pictures featured variously different colored and patterned cats just being cats. At least, that is what it may seem to most. Each picture exemplified at least one black cat in the mix doing just that: being cats. But black cats? They are bad luck and witches and darkness and shadows right? I personally do not believe so. However, believe it or not, that is a rather common association with black cats, and this post has brought it to my attention.
A summary of the post’s caption could be that black cats are far less likely to be adopted than any other cat simply because of the color of their fur. I was rather intrigued by that idea, not having the negative view on black cats myself, so I did some research. I learned that around one third of all cats are black, and that there are more black cats (and dogs as well) in animal shelters than any other color variant. The only reasoning behind it being the superstitious associations made with the black fur color, especially with cats. It might not seem like a very big thing, however, I am an advocate for animal rights. This basically stood out to me as a form of racism. Not to mention that we all know what happens to animals after spending so much time in overcrowded shelters. They’re euthanized. This led me to infer that there are many cats and other animals being euthanized ultimately because “they had the wrong colored fur”. I find idea that to be incredibly distasteful, as animals should not have to give up their rights to life on account of the color of their fur. I did not proceed to find that statistic.
After learning this new concept and adding my own intuitive thoughts to it, I was made to be quite motivated to exposing this unfortunate information and to support these animals more. The first thing I did was interrogate all of my friends with cats. Then I myself made many media story posts about my discovery. It was also a very good incentive for donating a bit more and volunteering at adoption centers when possible. By the way, if anyone was interested, you can also make blankets for shelter animals and drop them off at the SPCA, for example. Based on some of the surprised responses to my posts and texts, I am willing to bet this post would similarly affect at least some other people. People have done things or suggested to do things including fostering, donating, and volunteering. I am hoping that just sharing what I have learned and bringing attention to other social media accounts that talk about issues like this will bring more awareness to the topic.
There are many animal rights movements that I hope can and will be brought to light with myself and others trying to bring their topics to attention. As more people share more posts and information, more people may become involved and a greater change may happen much faster than it originally may have. Spreading this information will help build and strengthen the animal rights community to help us have a greater effect on humanity when it comes to finding support for our causes.
