Taking Halloween superstitions very seriously, an Idaho based animal shelter is prohibiting the adoption of black cats until Nov. 2, hoping to save the felines from frivolous pranks and perhaps sacrifice in occult rituals.

The appearance of a black cat, according to superstition, is a bad omen, and the Kootenai Humane Society in Coeur d'Alene wants to keep their sweet critters out of harms way.

Phil Morgan, the shelter's director said that the policy would protect the cats against the remote possibility that their adopters had sinister intentions for their new pet.

"It's kind of an urban legend. But in the humane industry it's pretty typical that shelters don't do adoptions of black cats or white bunnies because of the whole satanic sacrificial thing," Morgan said. "If we prevent one animal from getting hurt, then it serves its purpose."

But experts at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) said the ban maintains the superstitious stigma placed on black cats.

One spokeswomen for the organization, Gail Buchwald, said "Black cats already suffer a stigma because of their color. Why penalize them any more by limiting the times when they can be adopted?"

A spokeswoman for the Idaho branch of the ASPCA said, "If somebody comes in here and they're strange enough that we'd question why they're adopting a black cat on Halloween, then we're probably not going to adopt any animal to them. It doesn't seem to be a justifiable reason for not adopting black cats. We are absolutely inundated with cats that need homes right now."