{"id":9075,"date":"2011-03-29T10:34:06","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T15:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=9075"},"modified":"2011-03-29T10:40:33","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T15:40:33","slug":"%e2%80%98big-black-dog-syndrome%e2%80%99-and-other-animal-issues-focus-of-brock-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2011\/03\/%e2%80%98big-black-dog-syndrome%e2%80%99-and-other-animal-issues-focus-of-brock-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Big Black Dog Syndrome\u2019 and other animal issues focus of Brock conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What: Thinking About Animals conference<br \/>\nWhere:  Pond Inlet<br \/>\nWhen:  Thursday, March 31 (8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.) and Friday, April 1 (8 a.m. to 7 p.m.)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not easy being a big black dog in an animal shelter, and this week, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gwu.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">George Washington University<\/a> researcher is coming to Brock to talk about why.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8980\" style=\"width: 189px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8980\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8980 \" title=\"Amanda Leonard\" src=\"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/leonard-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"Amanda Leonard\" width=\"179\" height=\"270\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8980\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amanda Leonard<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Amanda Leonard, who recently earned a Master of Anthropology degree from the Washington DC university, has studied \u201cBig Black Dog Syndrome.\u201d The phrase describes why big black dogs remain un-adopted while their smaller, more colourful counterparts find loving families.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard will be one of dozens of local and international presenters at the Thinking About Animals conference at Brock on March 31 and April 1. Other topics include slaughterhouses, veganism, how animals express grief and a much-publicized investigation into the Toronto Humane Society last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBig Black Dog Syndrome,\u201d Leonard said, results in more black dogs being euthanized and fewer finding loving homes. Her recent study, which will be published in the <em>Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers<\/em>, finds the issue stems in part from humans\u2019 inability to distinguish facial expressions on black dogs. Also, with shelters typically being dark places, bad photography accompanying adoption ads could also be a culprit.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard\u2019s report includes a list of recommendations for animal shelters regarding how to make black dogs more marketable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you walk into an animal shelter, they may not know the term \u2018Big Black Dog Syndrome,\u2019 but they will know what you\u2019re talking about,\u201d said Leonard, a former employee of the Washington DC Humane Society. She will be part of a panel from 1:45 to 3:35 p.m. on March 31.<\/p>\n<p>The conference will include activists and academics. It is hosted in association with the Institute of Critical Animal Studies as the 10th Annual North American ICAS conference.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 <a href=\"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/webfm_send\/16503\">Full schedule of events<\/a><br \/>\n\u2022 <a href=\"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/webfm_send\/16191\" target=\"_blank\">Event poster<\/a><br \/>\n\u2022 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=npTV6NELgdI\" target=\"_blank\">Watch a video of John Sorenson, Sociology professor, discussing Thinking About Animals with rabble.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not easy being a big black dog in an animal shelter. That and other topics will be discussed at Thinking About Animals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[226,31,33],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9075"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9078,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9075\/revisions\/9078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}