OPINION: Another day, another drama on the Internet.
Singer Lily Allen found herself in hot water after she admitted on her podcast ‘Miss Me?’ that she rehomed her puppy Mary back in 2021. She claimed the final straw was the dog destroying her and her children's passports.
She was a very badly behaved dog and I really tried very hard with her, but it just didn’t work out.
The Internet was sent into a frenzy, with Lily copping it from angry fans and even animal rights organisation PETA.
As an owner of three fur babies, I felt outraged when I read the articles. Why would you purchase a dog if you couldn’t look after it? Why would you admit this on a podcast and expect zero backlash?
Then I delved deeper and realised this narrative was contributing to the harmful stigma around rehoming pets.
Lily has since come out with a statement on X claiming that the media twisted the narrative by “deliberately distorted cobbling together of quotes designed to make people angry” without listening to the full podcast.
After many months and much deliberation, everyone was in agreement that our home wasn't the best fit for Mary
The Internet remained divided, with some comments supporting Lily for being a responsible pet owner by opting to give the pup away to a better home, with others taking issue with her delivery in the podcast episode.
One Redditor asked "is it not better to rehome a dog you aren’t equipped for than putting it through continual stress and duress?"
Another couldn’t understand “how she did not see this coming” as “the Internet can forgive anything but you being mean to animals”.
Animal rescues actively encourage people to rehome dogs when they can’t look after them anymore as the alternative can be bleak. From euthanasia to abandonment, those who are too scared of the shame to reach out for assistance may take worse routes to get rid of a pet.
I get it, it’s easy to feel a lack of empathy for celebrities like Lily Allen who appear to have all the money and resources one would need to train a dog. But that also means she has the power to rehome the dog to a better environment, which she’s claimed to have done.
The person that she was rehomed with was known to us and that rehoming happened within 24 hours of her being returned
Could Lily have chosen her words better in the podcast? Absolutely.
However, the negative narrative surrounding rehoming an animal as an absolute last resort is wrong and harmful. Most people (unless you’re an asshole) adopt pets with the intention to look after them for life.
One Redditor shared their own experience with an unruly cat they rehomed after it “became vicious” and would “pee everywhere”.
The Internet does not f*ck around when it comes to furbabies.
Lily Allen should’ve thought twice before accusing an innocent animal of “ruining her life” on a podcast. But this situation has also shown that responsible pet ownership can look like admitting you don’t have the resources or capacity to look after an animal.
Rehoming should be a last resort, but shaming those who need to is not the solution.
