KANSAS -- A 12-year-old girl from Wichita, Kansas is taking on a problem plaguing animal shelters across the country.
Animal shelters and Humane Societies are fighting Black Dog Syndrome, in which people tend to choose light-colored dogs over dogs with black fur.
Madison Bell founded the black dog club to raise awareness of Black Dog Syndrome. A $25 donation to the Kansas Humane Society gets you a membership. The Girl Scout from Wichita raised $1,300 at Woofstock this year, all going to help her cause.
"It's nothing to do with the dog," says Bell, who volunteers at the Kansas Humane Society. "People don't want to put enough time and effort into seeing what this dog can really do."
Bell's goal is to raise awareness about it and, together with the Kansas Humane Society, she hopes you'll choose your next pet based on personality, not color.
"You can take two animals from the same litter. One's a lighter color and one's a darker, black color. And the lighter one will get adopted faster. People will be more attracted to it, and it's really a terrible thing because these are all just great animals that need homes," says Jennifer Campbell of the Kansas Humane Society.
In order to increase the adoptions of black animals at the Kansas Humane Society, they do things like this: put bright red bandanas on the dogs, hoping it'll catch your eye and you'll consider taking a black dog like Darwin here home, too.
"It's like, you pass a billboard while you're driving down the highway. You have five seconds for that billboard to show its message. And just like black dogs... if they're just laying down in their shelters it doesn't really give a good message," says Bell.
(Information courtesy NBC News)
