How would you react if a dog rescue rejected your family’s adoption application solely because you had a child with autism?
A dog rescue in Ontario, Canada is facing a major backlash after revealing that it would reject adoption applications by families with autistic kids — but they haven’t been without supporters, either, after posting their reasoning online.
The rescue organization isn’t budging.
Kismutt Rescue, a rescue organization in the tiny community of Kintore, Ontario, Canada, has made it clear that their policy won’t allow them to adopt dogs into homes with autistic kids.
Needless to say, it’s caused a backlash.
One family is calling on the organization to change its policy.
Cassidy Sabo, whose six-year-old son Wyatt is on the autism spectrum, says their family dog, Marlowe, has been a wonderful companion to her son.
After seeing a social media post by Kismutt announcing that autistic kids wouldn’t be allowed to adopt, Sabo says she was upset.
“My immediate thoughts was that it was discrimination, loud and clear, and that I was offended by it,” she said .
Here’s the post.
Buckle in, as it’s pretty long.
To their credit, the operators of Kismutt explain their rationale: that they’ve seen cases where dogs have been injured by kids on the autism spectrum. While there was no shortage of support for the post, there was also a good amount of outrage. Sabo says the rescue organization has been deleting negative comments.
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The rescue organization is getting review bombed.
On Google, the rating for Kismutt currently sits at 2.2 stars out of 5, no doubt a reflection of the negative recent press.
One of the uploaded images purportedly shows a text exchange where someone asked the operators to educate themselves about autism. The response was a curt, “Not interested.”
Aside from the Facebook post, there’s been no comment from Kismutt.
CTV News in nearby London reports that Kismutt has not responded to an interview request. Aside from the Facebook post and some short responses to supportive comments, Kismutt hasn’t clarified its position.
Is there merit to Kismutt’s argument?
These supportive comments should be taken with a grain of salt, as there are allegations that Kismutt has deleted critical comments. Still, it does stand to reason that a dog rescue should try to find a good match for its mutts as opposed to giving them to anyone who applies.
To counter this point, though, is the fact that the Sabos already have a dog who gets along well with their autistic son.
We’ll see if this develops any further.
“[Kismutt] has every opportunity to learn now, and I think how [they] handle this and how [they] go from here will determine the future of the organization,” Sabo said.
What do you think?
While there’s merit to finding a good fit between family and rescue animal, it seems a bit unfair to ban all kids with autism from adopting dogs.
Let us know your thoughts: do you agree with the dog rescue, or should they be more accommodating?
