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Animal rights nonprofit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) pushed back against a California animal shelter’s decision to turn away potential pet adoptees based on their opinions about gun control.
“We do not support those who believe that the 2nd amendment gives them the right to buy assault weapons,” wrote the Shelter Hope Pet Shop in Thousand Oaks, California, according to their website. “If your beliefs are not in line with ours, we will not adopt a pet to you.”
The logo of the international non-governmental animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is pictured in Stuttgart, southern Germany, on May 13, 2022.
(YANN SCHREIBER/AFP via Getty Images)
“If you hesitate, because your core belief is that you believe teachers need to carry firearms, then you will not get approved to adopt from us,” the shelter continued. “If you foster for us and believe in guns, please bring our dogs and/or cats back, or we will arrange to have them picked up.” People who lie about being members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) will be potentially be sued for fraud, the shelter further warned.
Catie Cryar, the assistant manager of PETA, told Fox News Digital that they have known the shelter “to do good work and are sure they have the best intentions, but from PETA’s perspective, because there is a homeless animal crisis, what counts is that adopted animals are treated well and cared for and that is the criteria we feel is important.”
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The Shelter Hope Pet Shop is owned by actress Kim Sill, who defended her expectations for potential adoptees to Fox News, especially given the impact gun violence has had on her family.
“In 1998, my sister was shot and killed by her husband,” she said. “He bought a gun two days previously with no mental health check and killed her.”
Sill said the tragedy prompted her to get into animal rescue, which she said likely saved her from suicide.
She said the shelter’s policy was prompted by the recent mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, as well as a nearby shooting that took place near the shelter in 2018.
Kim Sill at the Regency Theater on August 15, 2015 in Agoura Hills, California.
(JB Lacroix/WireImage via Getty Images)
“Adoption facilities like mine turn people down for all kinds of reasons,” Sill noted. “They can turn you down for the kind of dog food you tell them you’re going to use on that dog you want, or the kind of cat litter. I mean, seriously, we are a private nonprofit, and we pride ourselves in trying to find the absolute best homes for the dogs and cats that we can.”
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“But adding this question about gun control, I guess, has stirred up the conversation with those who don’t believe that they should even have to tell me what their situation is,” she continued. “So I think that’s the deal-breaker for most of them.”
She noted how some have been turned away because they did not want to answer the question about gun control during the shelter’s hour-long interview process.
Kim Sill, founder of Shelter Hope Pet Shop, and a guest attend Shelter Hope Pet Shop’s 20th Anniversary Celebration at St. John Knits on Sept. 25, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California.
(Lilly Lawrence/WireImage)
“I would say that your views on guns are relevant because, God forbid if you have a stroke, and your wife calls me up and tells me to come to your house and get the dog,” Sill continued. “I might not feel safe coming to your house, knowing that you are very radically opposed to me thinking it’s not okay for an 18-year-old to have a gun.”
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Sill also said she has received hundreds of death threats from people calling the shelter, but added that she forgives them.
