Lily Allen Claps Back at Backlash, ‘Death Threats’ After Returning Dog She Adopted

During a recent episode of her Miss Me? podcast the 39-year-old singer revealed that she returned the dog after Mary “ate” all of her family’s passports and visas, so her children weren’t able to go and visit their father in London.

“She ate all three of our passports, and they had our visas in,” she explained. “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.”

“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 [expletive] dog had eaten the passports,” Allen who shares two kids with ex-husband, Sam Cooper, continued.

The “Alfie” singer, who is now married to Stranger Things star, David Harbour, said that she could not “look” at her dog Mary again after this incident. “I was like, ‘You’ve ruined my life,'” she said.

She also explained that the dog wasn’t a good fit for her family and wasn’t gelling with them behaviorally, noting that while she “really tried very hard with her,” it just didn’t work out.

While it was the passports that “broke the camel’s back” for Allen and her family, she did reveal that she may be getting a new puppy soon.

After sharing the story, Allen took to social media to reveal that she’s since received backlash and even “death threats” for returning Mary, with animal rights group, PETA, even weighing in on the matter.

“We tried very hard and for a very long time but the passports were the straw that broke the camels back,” Allen wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “This is the part of the podcast that the tabloids decided not to quote in their articles about me ‘dumping my puppy.'”

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

Allen went on to share more of the story behind her family’s time with Mary and what led them to return her to the shelter.

“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,” Allen explained. “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 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.”

“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.” she continued.

Touching on her past with rescue dogs, Allen said that she’s never been accused of mistreating an animal before this incident.

“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,” she wrote. “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 went on to call the narrative surrounding Mary’s return distorted and likened to the recent spread of misinformation in the U.K. following the stabbing death of three little girls at a Taylor Swift dance class, that has led to race riots across the country.

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

PETA, who responded initially by sending Allen a toy pet after telling the singer she was unfit to care for an animal, replied to the explainer with a harsh tweet that read, “YOU laughed when speaking about abandoning Mary and ruined this poor dog’s life. She thought she had a loving forever home before you tossed her out, calling her ‘that f******* dog’ who ‘ruined my life.'”

“Shame on you,” the post continued. “You don’t deserve even the toy dog we sent you.”

Firing back again a the animal right’s group, Allen slammed PETA for “perpetuating lies.”

“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 ?” Allen asked. “What kind of animal welfare charity tries to shame someone for wanting to improver the welfare of an animal. Your post is dangerous.”

Allen had introduced fans to Mary in a 2021 Instagram post, telling followers at the time that they would “be seeing a lot more of her” before making the painful decision to re-home to the pup.