Ellen DeGeneres says she’s done talking about her doggie dilemma and is pleading for calm, saying on her show that the controversy surrounding an adopted dog has “gotten out of hand.”
During a Wednesday taping of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (which will air Thursday), DeGeneres told viewers she wouldn’t speak about the topic again until the dog, Iggy, is returned to DeGeneres’ hairdresser and the woman’s young daughters.
The dispute erupted last month when DeGeneres and her partner adopted Iggy, a black Brussels Griffon mix terrier. When Iggy wasn’t able to get along with DeGeneres’ cats, the couple gave the dog to DeGeneres’ hairdresser.
Mutts and Moms, the nonprofit dog-rescue organization that originally gave DeGeneres the dog, later took it back, saying the talk show host had violated the adoption agreement by not informing them that she was giving the dog away. That set off a firestorm of nasty e-mails and threats directed at the agency after DeGeneres shared the blow by blow with viewers on her show this week.
“Let me just say this, it’s gotten out of hand,” DeGeneres said on the segment to air Thursday. “I want nothing, nothing more than that dog returned to that family. But you don’t resort to violence. So anybody out there, please stop that. Please don’t threaten or do whatever.”
The angry calls got so bad that Marina Baktis, co-owner of the dog rescue organization, said she had to close her business and stay home Wednesday, a day after DeGeneres broadcast a tearful, televised plea for the dog to be returned to her hairdresser and the woman’s daughters.
Baktis spoke with Access Hollywood Tuesday evening about the great strife that this incident has caused her and her business partner, Vanessa Chekroun.
“My life is being threatened, this is horrible. I rescue dogs. I can’t believe this,” a sobbing Baktis said. “People are being so cruel to us. People are sending things that say ‘Nazi’ and words that I can’t repeat. You know so we can’t even review [adoption] applications because at this point we think [the threat givers] are just gonna come and try to hurt our animals.”
Baktis told Access that she’s worried for her safety and that her own dogs are being threatened.
“I haven’t eaten, I’m sick, and I’ve had heart palpitations,” she said.
She also claims that she’s losing business at her store, Paws Boutique, and that she’s had to remove Mutts and Moms Web site from the Internet.
“Now we can’t go to work because there is all this media⦠And so we’re losing business⦠Our reputation, they ruined our reputation,” Batkis continued.
DeGeneres has acknowledged she erred but said her hairdresser and her family shouldn’t be punished. Baktis has refused to back down, saying that she would never give back Iggy to the family that DeGeneres handed him off to.
“No, that is not a consideration at this point, no,” Baktis told Access. “Not after the way we’ve been treated, no. We have been terrorized, it has been horrible.”
Attorney Keith A. Fink, who doesn’t legally represent Baktis and Chekroun (but is authorized to speak on their behalf), confirmed to The Associated Press that the women will not give back Iggy.
“She doesn’t think this is the type of family that should have the dog,” Fink told the AP. “She is adamant that she is not going to be bullied around by the Ellen DeGenereses of the world … They are using their power, position and wealth to try to get what it is they want.”
DeGeneres said several agencies had offered to provide the family another dog, even one that looked like Iggy.
“And unfortunately, Ruby, the little girl, doesn’t want another dog, she wants Iggy,” said DeGeneres on the show to air Thursday. “It’s not a toy that’s broken that you can replace. It’s a dog.”
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