Wiccans address this here. They blame the nutters.
Snopes has a decentarticlethats pretty skeptical of the witchcraft claims.
This NatGeo article is also skeptical.
My own experiences with Satanists, drug culture, paganists, and other alt-types in my youth showed me that these people are probably more cowardly and violence fearing than the average person. I also vote teens and nutters.
There’s probably also something to be said about ignorant middle class parents spoiling their children with Holiday adoptions and eventually letting the cat go free, like rabbits on Easter.
My mom’s old cat Spunky used to always sit on one of the basement steps, so whenever you were going down to the basement you always had to skip the step she was sitting on. Except that she could be on any given step, and being a black cat in a dark basement, it was almost impossible to tell which one. So I got into the habit of skipping all of the basement steps.
Mom has always had black cats around the place, and I’ve never found any of them to be bad luck. Calicoes, though, are a different story.
Psst!!! Posts #7 & #9!
Hell, a few months ago when Piper was constipated after eating some plastic flowers (she has pica), it was HELL trying to catch her to give her her medicine. And once we got a hold of her, trying to KEEP hold of her was a total bitch. I’d like to see someone TRY to get their hands on her.
Again, most animal mutilations and abuse is done not by so-called “Satanists” but by sociopaths in the making. That’s usually a major warning sign in kids that there’s something seriously wrong. (That’s how Dahmer and Bundy got their starts)
No, no, no! tell them they have it wrong. Doesn’t everyone know that black cats are good luck when they come to your house. I know this 'caus my grandfather told me so. 
Our bad luck charm is a grey and brown tabby.
We only found this out years after we’d been adopted by our Princess Chocolate Pudding (I did NOT name her!), but apparently the small, slender black cats with orange to greenish eyes are a breed called Bombay. I’m pretty sure that there are black generic domestic shorthairs, too, that have heavier (“cobby”-type) bodies.
Yeah, 'cause this board is full of crazy people who are going to engage in a fairly gruesome practice just because someone mentioned it. :rolleyes: Maybe next we can discuss decriminalizing narcotics so that we can all turn into heroin addicts.
Our Mysteryis black. As far as I know, the only ones she’s unlucky for are birds and small rodents.
The occult shop down the street (part Santeria, part New Age, part Old Slavic Folklore) sells a mass manufactured brand of “allegedBlack Cat Bone” which I’m pretty sure is just chicken bone in a very cool illustrated bag. They also sell alleged bat’s heart which I’m positive is chicken heart. Obviously, some people will insist on doing the sacrifice themselves in order to be sure of getting the genuine article. I haven’t seen any connection between the black cat folklore and Halloween.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go sacrifice several bats and smear myself with the blood of a whale (It cost a lot to get that shipped fresh from Japan) in order to improve my tv reception.
No kidding. If it’s well known enough to be on wiki, I don’t think posting it here is going to make much difference.
This is kind of like saying, “Hey, murder and torture are bad, let’s not publish gory details of serial killer/torturers because someone might do that.” If some sicko is pervy enough to torture a cat, I don’t think seeing it on a message board will push him/her over the edge.
It occurs to me the OP’s name is a [del]purrfect[/del] perfect match for the topic.
I disagree. The Lurking Horror is a Lovecraft reference. Howard Philips Lovecraft was quite the cat lover. Though he wrote often of human sacrifice, the idea of feline sacrifice was anathema to him. For a cite I give The Cats Of Ulthar
From what I learned when I volunteered at an animal shelter, most mutilations are actually done by coyotes, which don’t eat the whole cat but usually just the stomach area, which people interpret as the work of Satanists.
On the subject of animal shelters, I’ve also heard the theory that black animals are less likely to get adopted in part because they often don’t photograph well.
When I was growing up Black Cats were particularly bad luck for ant hills, but only in the first week of July.
We had some angsty teens in my area when I was growing up who most certainly did “sacrifice” some dogs and cats. I think they just took what they could get their hands on, though. I’m sure Satan, and the Goddess, and whoever else they were claiming to worship, were quite embarrassed.
The rescue from whom we adopted Mr. Watson Bits had tons of black cats, and tried to push all his littermates on me. I’ll never have another non-black cat. Their fur blends in to my pant legs so much better!
