PETA "appalled" after Lily Allen returned rescue puppy for eating passports
25 August 2024, 16:47 | Updated: 25 August 2024, 17:11
Animal rights charity PETA has shared an open letter to Lily Allen saying it was "appalled" to hear that she returned an adopted puppy after it ate her family's passports.
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The organisation said dogs "should never be treated as accessories to be discarded when they become inconvenient."
"It's for this reason that we beg you, please, not to get another dog."
PETA said it would instead send Allen a mechanical toy puppy, "which requires none of the care, patience, or commitment that a real one does".
In the open letter, PETA's vice president of programmes Elisa Allen said: "While you could get new passports and rebook your flights, Mary may spend many months in the shelter waiting for a new family - if she's lucky enough to find one at all."
It comes after the singer said she and her husband David Harbour are thinking about adopting a new puppy, but that she had already tried it once and "took her back to the home", after the dog ate her family's passports during the pandemic.
She added that getting a dog is "a hell of a commitment".
However, in an X post today, Allen hit back at the criticism, saying: "We tried very hard and for a very long time but the passports were the straw that broke the camels back.
"People have been furiously reacting to a deliberately distorted cobbling together of quotes designed to make people angry and as a result, I've received some really abhorrent messages including death threats, some of the most disgusting comments have been all over my social media channels."
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The singer went on to say: "We rescued our puppy Mary from a shelter in NY and we loved her very much, BUT she developed pretty severe separation anxiety and would act out in all manner of ways.
"She couldn't be left alone for more than 10 mins, she had 3 long walks a day 2 by us and 1 with a local dog walker and several other dogs, we worked with the shelter that we rescued her from and they referred us to a behavioural specialist and a professional trainer, it was a volunteer from the shelter who would come and dog sit her when we were away, and after many months and much deliberation everyone was in agreement that our home wasn't the best fit for Mary.
"The person that she was rehomed with was known to us and that rehoming happened within 24 hours of her being returned. We couldn't meet Mary's needs and her happiness and welfare were central to us making that decision, as difficult as it was.
"I've had rescue dogs pretty consistently throughout my life since I was 4 years old, I'm pretty good at ascertaining a dogs needs, I have never been accused of mistreating an animal, and I've found this whole week very distressing."
Previously, the 39-year-old said the puppy "ruined [her] life" having eaten passports during the pandemic.
She made the confession on the Miss Me? podcast, which she hosts with Miquita Oliver, saying: "We actually did adopt a dog already, but then it ate my passport and so I took her back to the home."
She said the three passports that the dog ate had visas for herself and her two children, which led to "an absolute logistical nightmare."
As her ex-husband and the father of her two children, Sam Cooper, lives in England, it meant the former popstar was unable to take her children to visit him until the documents were replaced.
She said: “And because the father of my children lives in England, I couldn’t take them back to see their dad for like four months, five months, because this f----ing dog had eaten the passports.”
The singer added: “I just couldn’t look at her. I was like, you’ve ruined my life.”
Getting a dog is "a hell of a commitment", she said, adding that the puppy she adopted during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 ate her passport, as well as those of her two daughters, Ethel, 12, and Marnie, 11.
Yet on the podcast Allen said she intends to adopt another dog, which her children wish to name Jude Bellingham.
However, since the release of the podcast, the singer has received criticism from social media fans.
One X user wrote: “Lily Allen is all that’s wrong with the world, got a puppy, used it for likes on Instagram, and then sent it back to the home because it chewed up her family passports that she left within its reach.”
Another X user posted: “Not Lily Allen adopting a puppy then sending it back like it’s a wrongly sized PLT dress because it chewed her up and her kids’ passports.”
You can listen to the full Miss Me? episode on Global Player
