The saga of star singer Lily Allen, a returned rescue puppy and an angry online mob
Lily Allen has hit back after a barrage of criticism. Photo: Getty
Singer Lily Allen has fired back against vicious critics after she admitted to returning a rescue pup.
After announcing she was thinking of getting a new dog during an episode of her Miss Me? podcast, the British singer revealed she’d previously returned a dog she had adopted in New York during the pandemic because it had eaten her family’s passports.
The dog was Mary, a puppy Allen had created an Instagram account for in 2021. It shows only 10 posts in six days in May that year.
“She ate all three 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,” Allen said early in the podcast episode released on August 22.
“It was just an absolute logistical nightmare, because … the father of my children lives in England. I couldn’t get them back to see their dad for like, four months, five months, because this f—ing dog had eaten the passports.
“I just couldn’t look at her. I was like, ‘You’ve ruined my life’.”
Allen said Mary had already displayed poor behaviour, and she had “really tried very hard” with the pup, but the passports were “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.
Her admission drew immediate backlash online, resulting in what Allen claimed to be “abhorrent messages, including death threats”.
“If ever you needed confirmation that Lily Allen is a truly awful human being it’s her getting rid of her dog because her own stupidity meant she left passports in a place that the dog could get to them,” one person wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
This boy will be 11 in Jan.
He has chewed 100s of underwear & socks, peed on our beds as well as several carpets, almost died from eating my mother’s plants, challenged a billion cars/scooters/skateboards & I wouldn’t be without him for a sec.
Lily Allen is absolutely disgusting pic.twitter.com/LQuzJgywCk— Yeslehc (@PaintedRagdoll) August 24, 2024
Another wrote, “Translation: Lily Allen is an irresponsible pet owner and rather than leave the family documents in a safe location, she would rather blame the dog and get rid of it.”
PETA UK also added to the backlash, “begging” the singer not to get another dog, and claiming it would send her a “mechanical toy dog which requires none of the round-the-clock care a real-life puppy does”.
Others swooped in to defend Allen, saying the singer’s reaction was “reasonable”.
“Dog people are so funny to me. Calling Lily Allen abusive when she just knew she couldn’t handle the dog and had to return it like bro that’s kinda responsible since she didn’t even ditch it just return it? Idk it’s not that crazy,” an X user wrote.
As heated debated continued days after the podcast episode was released, Allen gave more details about the situation on X.
She said her family had loved Mary, but the pup had developed severe separation anxiety and couldn’t be left alone for more than 10 minutes.
Even after working with the shelter that had adopted Mary for “many months”, along with a behavioural specialist and a professional trainer, “everyone was in agreement” that Allen’s home wasn’t the best fit.
Animal Haven NYC, the animal rescue that reportedly provided Mary, told TMZ the dog was happy with her new family, and had always been the shelter’s to take back animals if an adoption did not work out.
People laugh when they talk about painful things all the time, it’s quite normal. I’ve clarified that we didn’t abandon her and that she was rehomed with people we knew almost immediately. Why are you perpetuating lies ? What kind of animal welfare charity tries to shame someone… https://t.co/SLORFjFauN
— Lily Allen (@lilyallen) August 26, 2024
“The person that she was rehomed with was known to us and that rehoming happened within 24 hours of her being returned,” Allen wrote on X.
“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.”
Allen also compared the reactions from “misinformed” commenters to the violent, racially-driven riots that recently swept the UK.
