Lily Allen responds to backlash surrounding admission she rehomed her dog
Lily Allen has responded to the backlash surrounding her controversial admission that she rehomed her former pet dog.
The pop star made the confession on her podcast Miss Me? with Miquita Oliver, saying that she returned her dog Mary after it “ate my passport”. Allen, who adopted Mary in 2021, said it became “an absolute logistical nightmare” due to her living in New York City and the father of her children living in London.
Allen said the dog ate other items, calling her “very badly behaved” and adding: “It just didn’t work out and the passports was the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak.”
Animal rights organisation PETA were amongst the many to criticise Allen for her admission, whose vice president of programmes wrote: “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.”
Now, Allen has responded to the furore, taking to X/Twitter to write that “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.”
"We tried very hard and for a very long time but the passports were the straw that broke the camels back"
This is the part of the podcast that the tabloids decided not to quote in their articles about me "dumping my puppy"
People have been furiously reacting to a deliberately…
— Lily Allen (@lilyallen) August 25, 2024
“I’m ok but it has been a really tough few days that has impacted me and my family,” she added.
Allen added some extra context, writing that Mary had “pretty severe separation anxiety and would act out in all manner of ways”. Despite working with behavioral specialist, a professional trainer and a “volunteer from the shelter who would come and dog sit her when we were away”, “everyone was in agreement that our home wasn’t the best fit for Mary” after deliberating for a number of months.
“The person that she was rehomed with was known to us and that rehoming happened within 24 hours of her being returned,” she continued. “We couldn’t meet Mary’s needs and her happiness and welfare were central to us making that decision, as difficult as it was.”
The singer went on to say: “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.”
Allen concluded her tweet by imploring people to “stop acting on clickbait articles when you haven’t done your due diligence,” saying: “It is distortion, and all you are doing by engaging with these stories is making more money for people who profit from sewing division and tearing us all apart.
“In the same way that misinformed people acted on distorted propaganda that led to the racially driven xenophobic riots we’ve seen recently in the UK, it’s just all so toxic and I know that we can do better.”
Elsewhere, James Corden has reportedly responded to Lily Allen’s “beg friend” comments.
A source apparently told The Daily Mail: “He thought for Lily to bring up their past was tacky and that she was a bit of a twat to have said anything at all.
“He believes he has never been desperate and deserves better and is pretty much over people talking about him in a negative way.”
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Alex Rigotti
NME
