Keen followers of current affairs might have spotted that today is National Black Cat Day.
For those of you who don’t live your life on social media, it’s a day to show some love to the criminally under-appreciated feline. Not only have black cats had to deal with centuries-old persecution due to their association with witchcraft and bad luck, nowadays they face an even greater barrier to mainstream acceptance: the smartphone.
Last year, when we got our cat Zelda from Wythall Animal Sanctuary, we were told by the volunteers who worked at the centre that one of the reasons black cats aren’t as easy to re-homes is that they don’t show up as well on people’s smartphone pics. Given how image-saturated our world has become, it doesn’t take too much of a leap of the imagination to imagine there’s more than a grain of truth in this. Whatever the reasons, the facts speak for themselves. Cats Protection report that, on average, it takes a monochrome moggy 13 per cent longer to find their new home than a more colourful cat? That’s one week longer in care, simply because of the colour of their fur!
While our cat Zelda is ridiculously white (and presents her own photographic challenges – think how difficult it is still to do justice to snow in a photo), I hate to think of any cats not getting the love they deserve.
My own cat Zelda dressed up with a ‘Vote Labour’ red rosette.
To this end, I’d like to dedicate this post to the black cats who’ve graced Cats of the Campaign Trail so far. And after learning more about black cats today, I promise to do everything I can to make sure the black cats of Bournville ward are represented to the fullest in my blog.
Thinking of adopting a black cat?
Has Black Cat Day made you want to give a cat a loving home? If so, please contact your local animal sanctuary. And while you might now be interested in the black cats, I’d urge you to keep an open mind about what cat you take home with you and not be one of those people who are only interested in how a cat will look like in photos.
If you’re not in a position to take on a cat (and it’s a big responsibility), why not think about sponsoring a black cat instead?
Important news about the future of Cats of the Campaign Trail (and the internet as well)
One of the reasons Cats of the Campaign Trail exists is because of the open nature of the internet, which means your internet service provider does not discriminate between leading cat/local politics blogs and larger, more commercial web services such as Netflix and Facebook. This principle of treating all data equally is called net neutrality and leading thinkers on technology and innovation believe it has been crucial to the innovation we’ve seen.
Thanks to net neutrality, a start-up company can compete on equal terms with established players. Without net neutrality, incumbents such as Netflix and Facebook could use the extra money they have at their disposal to purchase preferential access for themselves, allowing them to deliver a smoother service to customers, at the expense of start-ups and everyone else who will be forced into the slow lane. Net neutrality ensures there is healthy competition and that new ideas can flourish. It also means an internet service provider can’t discriminate against a certain kind of traffic, just because they feel like it (if they don’t like cat/local politics blogs), which could have worrying implications for freedom of expression.
I’m sorry to report that today MEPs in the European Parliament voted for telecoms regulations that many experts believe will leave the door open for internet service providers to introduce discrimination of the kind I just described. MEPs rejected amendments designed to give strong protection to net neutrality. In so doing, they ignored the advice of no less an authority as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the world wide web. You can read more about the vote and why it matters over on the BBC News website. For a more detailed examination of the technical issues, I recommend you check out the always-incisive Techdirt blog.
After you’ve checked out your local animal sanctuary’s website, please do take a moment to contact your MEPs and tell them you are not happy with the outcome of today’s vote. I recommend you use the excellent WriteToThem website, which makes it super-easy to contact all your MEPs in one fell swoop. And while you’re at, why not encourage them to sponsor a black cat as well?
Cats of the campaign trail 