Lily Allen says she received death threats after admitting she returned a puppy that ate her family's passports | Ents & Arts News

British pop singer Lily Allen says she has received death threats after announcing that she returned an adopted puppy because it had eaten her family's passports.

Animal rights charity PETA published an open letter Allen said he was “horrified” to hear she had returned the dog, adding that pets “should never be treated like accessories to be thrown away when they become inconvenient.”

“For this reason, we ask that you do not acquire another dog,” PETA added.

All spoke on an episode of her podcast “Miss Me?” on Thursday when she revealed that she adopted the dog during the COVID pandemic, before adding: “But then he ate my passport and so I brought her back to the shelter.”

In an Instagram story on Sunday, Allen shared an update, saying, “I have never been accused of mistreating an animal before and I have found the entire week very disturbing.”

She also criticized the reactions of social media users who “reacted angrily to a deliberately distorted string of quotes aimed at making people angry.”

Allen mentioned on Thursday's podcast that the puppy, Mary, “was very misbehaving and I tried really hard with her, but it just wasn't working and the passports were the last straw, so to speak.”

In her latest Instagram story, she wrote: “This is the part of the podcast that the tabloids decided not to quote in their articles.”

She adds: “I have received some truly vile 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 that's exactly the point of these articles,” Allen wrote.

“I'm fine, but it's been a really tough few days that have put a lot of strain on me and my family.”

The story originally came up when she told podcast guest host Steve Jones, a Welsh television presenter, that her family might be adopting a Chihuahua mix puppy.

She then told him about Mary after Jones asked her if she felt ready to get a dog with her husband, “Stranger Things” star David Harbour.

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Allen, who lives in New York, said the puppy ate her passport as well as the passports of her two daughters, Ethel, 12, and Marnie, 11, whom she has with her ex-husband, Sam Cooper.

The replacement passports were “an absolute logistical nightmare,” she said, and her children could have delayed their father in England by four or five months.

“I just couldn't look at her. I thought, 'You ruined my life,'” she added with a laugh.

In her Instagram story on Sunday, Allen said she adopted Mary from a New York animal shelter.

Although she “loved her very much,” she wrote, her family struggled to deal with the “quite severe separation anxiety” that Mary developed.

Allen wrote that the dog could not be left alone for more than 10 minutes at a time and that her family worked with a behavior specialist from the shelter who watched Mary's dog when they were not there.

She added: “After many months and careful consideration, everyone agreed that our home was not the best for Mary, that we knew the person she was staying with and that the placement was within 24 hours of her return.”

“We were unable to meet Mary’s needs and her happiness and well-being were at the heart of this decision, as difficult as it was,” Allen continued.