Lily Allen responds to backlash over puppy adoption controversy

Pop singer says Mary the puppy’s needs and welfare were ‘central’ to her and her husband’s decision to find the dog a new home

Lily Allen has hit out at the backlash sparked by her revelation that she returned her puppy to an adoption shelter, after it ate her and her children’s passports.

The pop star, author and actor received heavy criticism after she told the story on her podcast, Miss Me?, on which she called the passport incident “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

“Passports weren’t the only thing she ate, she was a very badly behaved dog and I really tried very hard with her, but it just didn’t work out,” she told her guest, Welsh TV presenter Steve Jones.

She explained that she was unable to travel to England with her two children to see their father, her ex-husband Sam Cooper, for four or five months while arranging replacement passports.

The British musician, 39, recalled the resentment she felt looking at the animal after the incident, stating: “I just couldn’t look at her. I was like, you’ve ruined my life.”

Allen has now claimed that tabloid newspapers failed to include her remark that the passports incident was the latest in a long line of issues involving the puppy, named Mary, which she said had resulted in her receiving “some really abhorrent messages”.

“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 on X/Twitter.

“I'm ok but it has been a really tough few days that has impacted me and my family.”

Allen explained that she and her husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour, rescued the dog from a shelter in New York and “loved her very much”.

However, Mary apparently developed “some pretty severe separation anxiety”, causing her to act out. Allen said that she was unable to be alone for more than 10 minutes, despite having three “long walks” each day.

Lily Allen hit out at the tabloid press for ‘distorting’ her version of events (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

“We worked with the shelter that we rescued her from and they referred us to a behavioral specialist and a professional trainer,” she wrote. “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.”

Allen said she’d had rescue dogs “pretty consistently” throughout her life since the age of four and believed she was adept at ascertaining a dog’s needs.

"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 have never been accused of mistreating an animal, and I've found this whole week very distressing,” she said.

“Please stop acting on clickbait articles when you haven't done your due diligence, I know that people sending horrible messages hadn't listened to the podcast but had been reading the Mail Online and the follow up articles and videos that followed, I could tell by the language they were using exactly what their sources were.”

Allen concluded her statement by comparing the division sewn by the media coverage of her story with the “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,” she said.