Lily Allen’s ‘terrible’ new statement slammed in puppy scandal

Lily Allen has defended her controversial decision to return her puppy to a shelter, but her statement has further angered fans.

Lily Allen has further angered fans by releasing a statement defending her decision to return her new puppy to a shelter after it ate her passport.

The British singer, 39, casually revealed last week she had given her puppy Mary back to New York-based non-profit shelter Animal Haven shortly after adopting her in 2021.

Declaring Mary had “ruined” her life, Allen told how the dog ate her own passport, as well as those belonging to her two young daughters, preventing them from seeing their father in the UK for several months.

Her admission on last week’s episode of her Miss Me? podcast, which she co-hosts with friend Miquita Oliver, was met with swift backlash, including from animal rights organisation PETA, prompting Allen to release a lengthy statement on Sunday levelling blame at the media.

Lily Allen is under fire for revealing she returned her adopted dog to the animal shelter.

Lily and husband David Harbour adopted Mary in 2021.

“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,” Allen began in a post on X, before going on to clarify why she returned Mary.

“We rescued our puppy Mary from a shelter in NY and we loved her very much, BUT she developed pretty severe separation anxiety and would act out in all manner of ways.

“She couldn’t be left alone for more than 10 mins, she had 3 long walks a day 2 by us and 1 with a local dog walker and several other dogs, we worked with the shelter that we rescued her from and they referred us to a behavioral [sic] specialist and a professional trainer, 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.”

David Harbour pictured on the subway with Mary.

Allen went on to explain how Mary was rehomed immediately with someone she knew.

The Fear singer said she’d found the recent criticism “very distressing”, adding she’d “never been accused of mistreating an animal.”

She urged fans not to make opinions based on “clickbait articles” without doing “due diligence.”

“It is distortion, and all you are doing by engaging with these stories is making more money for people who profit from sewing [sic] division and tearing us all apart,” Allen continued. “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.”

However, Allen’s explanation was met with much negativity on social media, with one commenter noting, “Literally, absolutely literally nothing in this tweet makes you look any better.”

“So thanks for your extra due diligence intel, you still come off as a terrible person,” the user went on.

Another wrote, “So you were too lazy to comfort it and retrain we understand.”

“Basically you didn’t know how to handle or train the dog so you dumped it. Nice,” a third said.

Allen with her two daughters Ethel Cooper and Marnie Cooper.

A fourth wrote, “You don’t give up on your animals. As soon as you take them in they are family. You don’t look any better for this.”

“I have 3 rescue dogs with 2 kids. I have rescues because idiots like you can’t take responsibility,” another argued.

When Allen adopted the puppy, she took to her social media account to announce the new addition to her family, telling fans she’d created an Instagram page for Mary where “you’ll be seeing a lot more of her.” That post has since been deleted.

Over on Mary’s account, @its_marys_world, Allen uploaded 10 photos in the space of six days before the account went dormant from May 6.

“[She] ate my passport and so I took her back to the home,” Allen confessed on the podcast.

“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 and so it was just an absolute logistical nightmare.

“And because the father of my children lives in England, I couldn’t take them back to see their dad for like four months, five months, because this f***ing dog had eaten the passports.

“And I just couldn’t look at her. I was like ‘you’ve ruined my life’.”

Allen, who lives in New York with Harbour, shares two daughters Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 11, with her ex-husband, UK builder Sam Cooper.