Stories of black cats being sacrificed, disfigured or killed during satanic Halloween rituals proliferate every year.
In response, some U.S. animal shelters ban the adoption of black cats during October.
Friends of Strays Inc., which conducts pet adoptions in St. Petersburg, does not permit the adoption of black cats from its shelter in October, said Margo Thomas, foster program coordinator.
But others say there is no need for this suspicion.
Stories of groups performing ritual sacrifices of black cats are urban legends, said the Rev. Diallo Mudd, or Lord Moonraven-Iuvantas, who is a member of the Circle of the Phoenix witchcraft group in Jacksonville.
"Most mainstream pagan faiths don't do that at all," he said. "Cats are actually protected in these religious groups."
Hilary Hines, public education program coordinator for Alachua County Animal Services, said she has worked at animal services for 12 years and has never seen a case of Halloween-related black-cat abuse.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found no correlation between Halloween and the abuse of black cats, said Mallory Kerley, a media coordinator for the organization.
But Kirk Eppenstein, executive director of Haile's Angels Pet Rescue in Gainesville, said there is a heightened awareness about animal abuse in October.
The rescue scrutinizes an individual during the adoption process.
If a person came in to the rescue looking to adopt a solid black cat and did not ask about anything else, Eppenstein said he would be suspicious and question his or her intentions.
"It's kind of like the 9/11 terrorists," he said. "They wanted to learn how to fly the planes, but they didn't want to learn how to land the planes."
