That time Lily Allen gave away her puppy for a shocking reason resurfaces after new album

Lily Allen is everywhere right now after releasing a ruthless new album which appears to address her marriage breakdown from David Harbour, and all of her old scandals are resurfacing including that time she gave away a puppy she’d just adopted.

The 40-year-old told the story on her podcast Miss Me?, revealing that she adopted the dog called Mary during lockdown but gave it back to the New York shelter because it ate her and her kids’ passports. She even set up a whole Instagram page for the pooch before giving her away.

“We actually did adopt a dog already, but then it ate my passport and so I took her back to the home,” she said. “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.”

This is Mary the dog Lily Allen returned to the dog shelter for chewing her and family passports during covid. Claiming this ruined her life.

She’s now saying she wants to adopt another dog!!
Every dog shelter should put a ban on her ever having a dog!

Puppies chew and need… pic.twitter.com/6eBBBmNFHK

— 𝐿𝒾𝓈𝒶 𝑅𝑜𝓈𝑒 🌹🥀💐 (@Atherton7Rosex) August 24, 2024

She went to to explain that she couldn’t take her kids back to England to see her dad, adding: “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.”

“I just couldn’t look at her. I was like, you’ve ruined my life,” the singer said about the dog. She then clarified that passports weren’t the only thing she ate, saying “she was a very badly behaved dog” and she “tried very hard with her” but it just didn’t work out. Allen said “the passports were the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak”.

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After loads of backlash, PETA released a statement saying they were “appalled” to hear that Allen had returned the dog, saying pets “should never be treated as accessories to be discarded when they become inconvenient”. They added: “It’s for this reason that we beg you, please, not to get another dog.”

On Twitter, Allen then defended herself in a lengthy post after revealing she’d received some “really abhorrent messages including death threats, some of the most disgusting comments have been all over my social media channels”.

"We tried very hard and for a very long time but the passports were the straw that broke the camels back"

This is the part of the podcast that the tabloids decided not to quote in their articles about me "dumping my puppy"

People have been furiously reacting to a deliberately…

— Lily Allen (@lilyallen) August 25, 2024

“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 said. “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 behavioural 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.”

“We couldn’t meet Mary’s needs and her happiness and welfare were central to us making that decision, as difficult as it was.”

I’ll never forget when Lily Allen dumped her rescue puppy back at the shelter because it didn’t behave the way she wanted.

— A*y W*a*t* 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@ILuvLewisHam) October 24, 2025

Despite defending herself, people are still calling Allen out for giving away the young dog four years on.

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Featured image by: Lily Allen/Instagram