Singer-songwriter Lily Allen has been receiving backlash after revealing that she gave up her adopted puppy after it tore up her family’s passports.
The decision hasn’t sat well with many fans and dog lovers, but Allen issued a statement defending her choice.
Allen, the British musician whose songs include “Smile” and “Not Fair,” said on her podcast Miss Me? on August 22 that she and her husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour, were thinking about adopting a Chihuahua mix soon.
When guest Steve Jones asked Allen if they were ready for the commitment of having a dog, Allen replied that they had already adopted one dog together, but ultimately returned her after the pup destroyed the family’s passports.
“It ate my passport, and so I took her back to the home,” Allen says.
“She ate all 3 of our passports, and they had our visas in. And I cannot tell you how much money it cost me to get everything replaced because it was in COVID. And so it was just an absolute logistical nightmare.”
Allen has two children with her ex-husband Sam Cooper. She and Harbour live in New York, while Cooper lives in England. “I couldn’t get them back to see their dad for, like, four months, five months because this f—- dog had eaten the passports,” Allen said. “And I just couldn’t look at her. I was like: ‘You ruined my life.’”
Allen says it wasn’t the only incident, and that the dog, a puppy named Mary, was “very badly behaved” and that the passports were “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Despite that experience, Allen said she and her family were excited to bring home the new Chihuahua mix.
According to previous social media posts, Allen and Harbour adopted Mary from the New York shelter Animal Haven in May 2021. Announcing the news on social media, Allen wrote that fans would “be seeing a lot more of her.”
Backlash
The decision by Allen to give up her dog was met with intense backlash, both from fans and from animal rights groups like PETA.
Many adopted dogs need time to acclimate to their new home and learn good behavior, and people criticized the singer for not giving the dog more of a chance. Others criticized her for apparently using the dog for social media clout, then ditching her when things became inconvenient. Many took issue with Allen’s hostile tone when talking about the incident, referring to Mary as “that f—ing dog.”
Others defended Allen, saying that not every dog was the right fit for every home, that choosing to surrender a dog was a personal choice, and firing back at the hostility of some of Allen’s critics.
Allen defends her decision
In response to the backlash, Allen released a statement, elaborating on the incident and decrying the “tabloids” for taking her statements out of context.
“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, and i’m really not surprised because this is exactly what those articles are designed to do,” she wrote.
She wrote that they “loved” the dog, but Mary had separation anxiety and “would act out in all manner of ways” and “couldn’t be left alone” for more than 10 minutes. Allen also wrote that they gave up the dog after “many months and much deliberation,” which included working with dog trainers and a behavioral specialist.
While on the podcast she says she sent Mary “back to the home,” she clarified that the dog was re-adopted by a family known to them within 24 hours.
“We couldn’t meet Mary’s needs and her happiness and welfare were central to us making that decision, as difficult as it was,” Allen wrote.
While Allen’s statement sheds some more light on the situation, it seems many followers were still not able to forgive her.
“Not a good enough excuse,” one person replied on X/Twitter. “Train your dog properly and it won’t develop separation anxiety. Please never have another dog.”
Others were more sympathetic: “Absolutely the right thing to do if you felt you could not meet the dog’s needs,” another reply reads. “Adoption is amazing, but many rescue dogs come with [unforeseen] issues that can’t be mitigated.”
