Brooklyn Dog Shelter Disputes Dunham Claim Dog Was Abused

Folks, it is with a heavy heart I must announce that Lena's Dunhit again.

Lena Dunham, the creator of HBO's Girls, seems unable to do anything without generating some sort of shitstorm. Last night, that something involved her (now former) dog, Lamby.

In late June, a heartbroken Dunham took to Instagram to announce that she had to give Lamby away due to behavioral issues. Lamby, she said, "suffered terrible abuse as a pup that made having him in a typical home environment dangerous to him and others." According to Dunham, Lamby had been biting, destroying furniture, and even peeing in Dunham's mouth. Lamby was sent to The Zen Dog, a shelter which specializes in dogs with aggression issues.

A lot of you have been asking where Lamby is these days since he's always been the star of my gram and I've been posting pics of my poodle girls. Well, you know honesty is my jam but this one has been really heartbreaking to talk about. But I feel I have to share that last March, after four years of challenging behavior and aggression that could not be treated with training or medication or consistent loving dog ownership, Lamby went to live at an amazing professional facility in Los Angeles matt_thezendog where an awesome person named @therealdanishay (who is educated in a rescue dog&#39;s specific trauma) loves him so hard. Lamby suffered terrible abuse as a pup that made having him in a typical home environment dangerous to him and others- we needed to be responsible to ourselves, our neighbors and especially our beloved boy. Jack and I will miss him forever but sometimes when you love something you have to let it go (especially when it requires tetanus shots and stitches.) Someday I&#39;ll really write about the pain and relief of letting Lamby go off and really be Lamby, biting and peeing in his own mouth and all. There were so many lessons in it, about forgiving myself and loving with an open palm and giving in to a larger plan. Shout out to @jennikonner for listening to endless hours of Lamby pain, and especially my partner @jackantonoff for loving him even when he ruined floors and couches and our life. Jack knows what Lamby means to me and he let me come to the decision in my own time even when it made his days challenging. Susan &amp; Karen will never be my first loves, but they are fuzzy and hilarious stuffing for the hole Lamby left and we cherish them deeply ❤️#lamby #thefirstcutisthedeepest #foreverlamb PS If you have a similar situation, please know its possible to responsibly re-home your rescue rather than sending them back into the shelter system. It can require patience, diligence and often a financial contribution but there are solutions that leave everyone happy and safe. You will always have been your dog&#39;s first stop outside shelter life and that&#39;s beautiful.</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by Lena Dunham (lenadunham) on Jun 20, 2017 at 9:33pm PDT

At a glance, it’s a heart-wrenching story: she adopted a dog from a no-kill shelter, despite her boyfriend's canine allergies, and after forging four years of best friendship and sharing the limelight of her fame, including a New Yorker article, a Vogue Magazine photoshoot, and an Instagram account which currently boasts over 17,000 followers, one could say Dunham did the brave and responsible thing by admitting her troubled dog into doggy rehab.

Well, that would be the case, were it not for one very prominent skeptic of Dunham's story. That doubter would be the BARC Shelter, a Brooklyn-based shelter from which Dunham adopted Lamby in January 2013. “We checked the records for Lamby,” Robert Vazquez of the BARC shelter told Yahoo Celebrity via email. “He was ‘owner surrendered, not enough time,’ so we do not know where she got ‘multiple owners that abused the dog.’”

"If Lamby had a bad past or was abused, do you think BARC would have adopted him to Lena knowing she’s a new star and put her -- or the dog -- in that situation? We would have told her if the dog had issues. We are a no-kill shelter. We don’t lie about the dogs’ histories because that gets them returned -- and mentally it’s not good for dogs… It’s just hard to believe the dog was nasty when she took Lamby to every green room with her when Girls was still a thing 4 years ago.”

And thus #Lambygate began. Though Vazquez' objections are hardly all that inflammatory, the "micro-scandal," as Dunham put it in a later Instagram post, seemed to be fuel for Dunham's critics who often harp on her for skewering facts for her personal image.

Dunham, in keeping with her public persona, unapologetically defended her decision in response to BARC Shetler's statement. “Why should this story be subject to scrutiny and anger? It is willfully misunderstanding the truth,” she wrote in a follow-up post on Instagram.

"I would never say an unkind word about the staff of BARC, what they do is amazing and life saving for these animals- but we have different accounts of Lamby's behavior and they were not present in my home nor did they live with him for an extended period. They did not witness the consistent and responsible care I provided. I have weathered a lot of micro-scandals but this one hurts MOST, because of the vulnerability of letting people know Lamby and my story, and because I miss him so damn much."

For the moment, this seems to be the final word on #Lambygate (#Lambyghazi?), but who knows? Perhaps Lamby will respond to the allegations on his own Instagram account, then this story would get really juicy.