An animal shelter in Southern California has made it very clear that if you want to adopt a pet from their center, you must stand with their beliefs on gun control or “we will not adopt a pet to you.”
The Shelter Hope Pet Shop in Thousand Oaks added a question for their potential pet adopters that they must answer if they want a pet from the shelter. The question reads, “Where do you stand on gun control?” The Hill reported in a piece published Thursday. The owner of the shop, Kim Sill, shared that the shop doesn’t “support” those who believe the Second Amendment means the “right to buy assault weapons.”
“We believe that if we can make our voices heard on how we feel, we can make an impact,” the Shelter Hope Pet Shop owner wrote on the website. “We do not support those who believe that the 2nd amendment gives them the right to buy assault weapons. If your beliefs are not in line with ours, we will not adopt a pet to you.”
“Thank you for the kind and thoughtful comments on this post,” the shop’s message on Facebook later read about the policy. “To the many angry humans who posted comments here I will say it again: I should not have to carry a gun to protect my shelter and to protect my staff, animals and volunteers.”
“I have the right to adopt to like minded beings in regard to gun control,” the post added. “Many of your comments are not worthy of a response so I will refrain from posting one.”
Reading through the comments on the shop’s Facebook page, many people voiced their criticism of the shelter’s new criteria, as the owner shared the policy was enacted following the Uvalde school shooting in Texas.
“You’re not doing the animals any favors with this attitude,” one person shared. “Nobody said you should have to carry a gun to protect yourself either! That’s a CHOICE. The chances of you needing a gun are slim, but I prefer to carry because I feel safer when trave[l]ing, while sleeping, etc. We already have many common-sense gun laws…now they need to use them. Would you rather protect yourself with a knife if a knife-wielding crazy comes at you? I’m more afraid of knives than guns.”
Another wrote, “There’s a wonderful business strategy…shooting yourself in the foot so you have to work twice as hard finding homes for the pets. Oh, that’s right, they’ll have to remain ‘animals’ that much longer because you made it that much harder for them to be adopted as ‘pets.’”
“Pets can not have a home because I, as a legal gun owner and an African American woman who lives with daughters, has taken steps to be able to defend myself and my family,” another shared.
In response to the backlash, the same message was posted over and over again attributed to the shop.
“Republicans and Democrats need to stop fighting and get together and be Americans first and protect our schools and children,” the shop message read. “There has to be a compromise and a solution and a way to fix this somewhere in the middle. The second amendment was written 2 centuries ago.”
“It’s perfectly fine if we modernize it to reflect the changes in the country and the new necessities in today’s world,” the message added. “We have to work together and make gun ownership come with training, periodic examinations, and proof of mental health. What could possible be the downside of requiring those things.”