You may know that Lily Allen relinquished her rescue puppy ‘Mary’ (said to be a Maltipoo but I am not sure about that) to the shelter from where she adopted the dog because Mary destroyed her passport and the passports of her children because she was left alone and suffers from separation anxiety causing her to ‘act up’.
Despite Allen’s best efforts to overcome the separation anxiety problems she decided at the end of the day to return Mary which cause uproar on social media with death threats she said and PETA stepping in to criticise her in an open letter which is published below. Allen received a lot of social media criticism of which the one below kind of sums it all up.
“Lily Allen is all that’s wrong with the world, got a puppy, used it for likes on Instagram, and then sent it back to the home because it chewed up her family passports that she left within its reach.” – A lot of people would agree with this.
Mary had (still has at the date of this post) an Instagram page. A lot of people do adopt pets to try and turn them into social media stars. It is not good. It is pet owners seeking celebrity vicariously through their pet although this does not apply to Allen.
As you can see PETA drove home their point by sending a mechanical toy puppy to Allen. Point made, which is that Allen’s lifestyle is suited to owning a toy dog but not the real thing. This would arguably apply to many people who’ve adopted/purchased a companion animal.
These are the points I take from this incident and PETA’s letter
We are told that Lily Allen adopted the puppy during the coronavirus pandemic. A lot of people did this. Not a good idea as it is likely that their thinking was skewed by the unnatural circumstances of being forced into isolation which is turn encouraged the adoption of a dog without thinking it through such as what happens when the pandemic is over?! A lot of dogs were abandoned after the pandemic.
People who want to adopt a cat or dog – ideally through a rescue center as buying cats or dogs from a breeder is really unacceptable until all rescue dogs and cats are rehomed – should ask themselves some tough questions about the suitability of their lifestyle. It is said that dogs should not be left alone for more than four hours. You can’t really adopt a cat or dog and expect to leave them alone in an apartment all day while you go to work. That’s not going to work, sadly. I know it’s tough but I feel that a lot of the time people’s lifestyles are unsuited to living with a cat or dog but they are unaware of it because they don’t have sufficient knowledge of the needs of cats and dogs.
Cats are not as sensitive as dogs in respect of separation anxiety but it is a fallacy to think that they will be okay being left at home all day alone as an indoor cat. That is almost certain to cause stress and anxiety. These issues need to be addressed before adoption and PETA’s letter hints at them when they say: “Dogs are never to be treated as accessories to be discarded when they become inconvenient.” That first step before adoption is the most important. All kinds of issues need to be addressed if one is to avoid the pressure of feeling that you have to ‘discard’ your pet.
It might be the cost of owning a pet. It is expensive and purebred companion animals are often more expensive due to inherited genetic diseases caused by inbreeding. You’ll need insurance which can be mightily expensive.
It might be the accommodation that one is forced to live in due to circumstance. There needs to be a holistic appraisal of one’s ability to care for a cat or dog before adopting. PETA are saying this in their letter as the commitment is for the life of the companion animal. A big responsibility and an expensive one.
I also feel that people who want to adopt need to think ahead and ask themselves whether they will be able to look after their companion animal in hard times. One needs to project forward and look at the possible difficulties that might occur in terms of financing cat and dog caregiving. There’s been more abandonments to Blue Cross in the UK. Here is an example which is heartbreaking actually:
“I cannot afford to feed and look after my beautiful cat. Please look after my cat in a way that I cannot. May God forgive me.”
This is a kitten that was left outside a Blue Cross hospital with an attached note, found by Milkman. Just one example.
As for dogs destroying personal objects: surely Allen was careless in leaving the passports lying around where Mary could get at them. We can’t be too hard on Allen but it was a mistake. The lesson here is to take proactive steps to make the relationship between cat or dog and caregiver workable and harmonious. It is about looking ahead and making plans. Companion animal ownership can be complicated and they interfere with one’s life. Life becomes a compromise. One has to accept that before adopting.
Apparently the loss of the passports meant that the kids could not visit their father in England for several months and their destruction ‘ruined my life’.
“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***king dog had eaten the passports. And I just couldn’t look at her. I was like: ‘You’ve ruined my life.'”
PETA (pronounced ‘Peter’ incidentally) have told Allen not to consider adopting a companion animal until her lifestyle is more suited to dog caregiving. Pretty strong stuff. Allen is considering getting another dog so this letter may make her think twice.
There are too many abandoned dogs and cats at shelters where many are euthanised. We accept it as part of the ‘pet ownership issues’ but should we? We should have higher standards. In an ideal world there would be no rescue centers and no feral cats and dogs. We are a long way off that ideal and it’s all due to human carelessness and not heading what PETA says in their open letter on this page.
There are great rewards in cat and dog ‘ownership’ but the responsibilities are equally large. Companion animals are given up to shelters or simply abandoned on the roadside because people can be self-indulgent when adopting/purchasing. It is the ‘I want’ mentality without thinking through the issues and making a serious assessment of one’s circumstances before becoming a companion animal caregiver.
I say that the most important stage in cat or dog ownership is before the ownership starts. If people lock onto the idea that the adoption is for the life of the animal without exception which means around 15 years of an entirely changed lifestyle they’d think twice. But often they don’t. They like the appearance of an animal – and people are often obsessed with appearance as humans are very visually orientated which ironically is different to cats and dogs who rely much more on their olfactory senses – and dive in to get one asap. It can work out but you have to make sure that it is almost guaranteed to work out.
Sometimes life events happen which means you have to give up your companion animal but these are or should be rare exceptions. It is about attitude; being determined to see the ‘contract’ between pet and human to its natural conclusion which is normally the death of the companion animal.
For me – without wishing to sound too critical or grumpy, the problems with pets by which I mean the unacceptable number of feral cats and dogs and often overcrowded shelters arises because of a defect in humankind’s attitude. It is regarding pets almost as inanimate objects and discardable which brings me nicely back to PETA’s letter on this page. PETA hates that attitude and it goes to the root of their thinking. Too many people see ‘pets’ as almost non-sentient. Even the word ‘pet’ hints at the problem. The word ‘pet’ is one step up from a plush toy.
More: What PETA really stands for. Infographic.
P.S. PETA has supporters and detractors. I love them because of their courageous uncompromising attitude to animal welfare. The world needs this. The animal welfare problems need to be faced head on with noise and impact. People don’t get it otherwise.
Even the best cat caregivers might have moments when they’d like to free of the responsibility of caring for their companion animal. There are pros and cons. I have mine: My personal domestic cat pros and cons in an infographic.
