British pop star Lily Allen has revealed she’s received death threats after returning an adopted puppy that chewed up her family’s passports.
Animal rights group PETA responded with an open letter, expressing its outrage at Allen’s decision. The charity stated that pets “should never be treated as accessories to be discarded when they become inconvenient.”
PETA pleaded, urging, ‘Please, don’t get another dog.'”
During an episode of her Miss Me? podcast on Thursday, Allen disclosed that she had adopted a dog during the COVID pandemic, but after the dog ate her passport, she decided to return it.
On Sunday, Allen shared an update via her Instagram story, expressing that she had never been accused of mistreating an animal before and found the past week deeply upsetting.
She also slammed social media reactions, calling them ‘a furious response to deliberately distorted quotes meant to incite anger.’
On the podcast, Allen explained that the dog, Mary, ‘was extremely difficult to manage, and despite my best efforts, it just didn’t work out. The passport incident was the final straw.'”
In her latest Instagram story, she shared, “This is the part of the podcast that the tabloids conveniently left out of their articles.”
She continued, “I’ve received some truly vile messages, including death threats. The most repulsive comments have flooded my social media, and honestly, I’m not surprised—this is exactly the kind of reaction those articles aim to provoke,” Allen wrote.
“I’m okay, but it’s been a really tough few days that have affected me and my family.”
The story came up when she mentioned to guest co-host Steve Jones, a Welsh TV presenter, that her family might adopt a Chihuahua mix puppy.
She later told him about Mary after Jones asked if she felt ready to take on the responsibility of getting a dog with her husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour.
Allen, who lives in New York, shared that her dog chewed up her passport and those of her two daughters, Ethel (12) and Marnie (11), whom she co-parents with ex-husband Sam Cooper.
Replacing the passports turned into “an absolute logistical nightmare,” Allen said, forcing her children to postpone their visit to their father in England by four or five months.
“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 their passports.
“I couldn’t even look at her,” she joked. “I was like, ‘You’ve ruined my life.'”
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