This year on Black Friday, Butler County residents can do a different kind of shopping.
Nov. 23, the Butler County Animal Friends Humane Society will be holding a Black Friday adoption where all animals are half the normal adoption fee and animals that are predominately black will be $15, Meg Stephenson, executive director of the Humane Society, said.
This event began four years ago to help place as many animals into homes as possible, Stephenson said.
"Black animals get overlooked and they're harder to adopt out," she said. "What better day than to highlight these predominately black animals, not only because of the holidays, but just in it in itself, black animals on Black Friday."
Some students said they think that black animals are overlooked for superstitious reasons.
"There's the superstitious thing about black cats," first-year Valerie Bussberg said. "People might think it's unlucky to adopt black cats."
First-year Alicen Maestas said that she thinks it is strange that black animals are harder to adopt.
"Most people I know are dog lovers and would take in any animal," she said.
According to Stephenson the Humane Society is always looking to do events around holidays and since Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year they thought they could get a higher number of adoptions.
"We just want to get people aware of who we are and what we do," she said.
Since the startup of this event the total number of adoptions on Black Friday has decreased, Stephenson said. The first year she estimated a total of 97 adoptions.
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"Each year it's not quite as high as the year before... [but] it's still enough of a push," she said.
Many factors play into adopting a pet, Stephenson said, and right now there are a few reasons she said she believes the number of adoptions on Black Friday has decreased.
"It's a lot of responsibility to own an animal," she said. "The economy...people aren't financially capable of adopting a pet, but we're still seeing a greater number of adoptions on this day than any other day."
There were other factors that pushed The Humane Society to begin a Black Friday adoption as well. Event though adoption is their primary focus, they wanted to make people aware of what they do, Stephenson said.
"We were looking into creative ways to inform people who we are and what we do," she said. "The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year and [we thought] let's piggyback on this day of the year and see if we can't do a high number of adoptions."
Stephenson said she hopes the event will get as many animals adopted as possible, not just the black ones who are normally overlooked.
"We just want to place as many animals as possible for the holidays," Stephenson said.
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