diff --git a/shade/openstackcloud.py b/shade/openstackcloud.py
index a9732d050..bb5b664a6 100644
--- a/shade/openstackcloud.py
+++ b/shade/openstackcloud.py
@@ -173,7 +173,9 @@ class OpenStackCloud(object):
             self.log.debug(
                 "Turning off Insecure SSL warnings since verify=False")
             category = requestsexceptions.InsecureRequestWarning
-            warnings.filterwarnings('ignore', category=category)
+            if category:
+                # InsecureRequestWarning references a Warning class or is None
+                warnings.filterwarnings('ignore', category=category)
 
         self._servers = []
         self._servers_time = 0