As a cat owner, I have quite literally no dog in this fight, but it seems to me that neither Pete Davidson nor US animal protection body PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) are doing themselves any favours by engaging in a frankly random feud.
Here's what happened: last month, Davidson and his girlfriend, Chase Sui Wonders, popped by Citipups in Manhattan, New York to pick up a purebred Cavapoo puppy. A week or so later, an employee who had filmed the couple leaked the footage to TMZ, and someone gave a quote about it being from a breeder. The outlet speculated that the little dog was for the couple, and we all went on with our lives.
Until! This week, Daphna Nachminovitch, the senior VP of cruelty investigations at PETA (a cool title for what is probably not a super-fun job), released a statement to the outlet, calling out Davidson for not adopting a dog. Worth noting that her statement isn't particularly mean-spirited, though it is kind of…rude? “It's tragic that Pete didn’t seek out a borough-born mutt from a city animal shelter, because a scrappy New Yorker with charm, personality and unconventional handsomeness could have been his perfect match.”
Like, okay, “tragic” might be an overstatement, and do we need to comment on Davidson's looks in this missive? She continued, “Since shelters in New York and across the country are overflowing with homeless animals, PETA urges Pete to show some big heart energy by adopting, not shopping, in the future.” Again, we get that PETA's entire deal is poking at sore spots, but the big heart energy thing…let the man move on from Ari! Plz!
Anyway, this did not sit well with Pete Davidson, who found Nachminovitch's work number and left her a voicemail explaining that, because of his allergies, he can only be around Cavapoos, and that the puppy was for his mum and sister, who had recently lost their dog and been bereft over it, and then he basically invited her to suck on stuff, you get it. Here's the voicemail, which obviously leaked immediately.
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(Remember when he and Ari got a pig?)
Do you think it stopped there? What are we, children? “I haven't seen my mom and sister cry like that in over 20 years,” Davidson later told TMZ in a less heated statement, per People, referring to the death of family dog Henry. “I was trying to cheer up my family. I was already upset that the store had filmed me without my permission or acknowledgment. Then this organisation made a public example of us, making our grieving situation worse. I am upset. It was a poor choice of words. I shouldn't have said what I said, but I am not sorry for standing up for myself and my family.” He added that he wasn't, at the time, aware that he could possibly find a Cavapoo in a shelter.
Which, obviously, PETA let be the final word on the matter. NOT! “Our hearts go out to Pete and the rest of the Davidson family for the loss of their beloved dog, but there's no excuse for promoting the puppy mill industry by buying a dog from a pet store when millions of wonderful dogs await loving homes in animal shelters. Anyone set on finding a dog of a specific breed can go to shelters, where an estimated 25% of dogs are 'purebreds,' check with adoption groups, or search Petfinder online…puppies in pet stores, almost without exception, are obtained from puppy mills, deplorable massive dog prisons….
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"We know Pete cares about animals and was trying to do a nice thing for his family, but he has millions of impressionable fans, and his choices matter — so the next time he's ready to welcome an animal into the family, we hope he makes the compassionate choice to adopt, not buy,” the org told People.
And that, dear reader, is where things stand in the feud of the century.
Citipups told me it found my cat in the Bronx, but it did make me pay for her. Should I be concerned?
This story originally appeared on GLAMOUR US.
