Ellen DeGeneres keeps up public plea for dog
Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES—Comedian Ellen DeGeneres took to the airwaves on Wednesday for a second day to denounce an animal rescue organization that took back her adopted dog after she gave the puppy away without the agency’s permission.
DeGeneres caught the nation’s attention on Tuesday when she opened her TV talk show with a tearful plea for the pet-adoption service to reunite the dog with the family of DeGeneres’ hairstylist, whose daughters she said had already bonded with the pooch.
The performer said she had adopted the shaggy-haired mixed breed named Iggy in September and spent thousands of dollars to neuter and train it. But ultimately, she found the dog another family because it did not get along with her cats.
“I thought I did a good thing,” she said. “I tried to find a loving home for the dog because I couldn’t keep it.”
But the owners of Pasadena-based Mutts and Moms insisted on reclaiming the dog on grounds that DeGeneres violated terms of her adoption agreement that required her to return the pet to the agency if she chose not to keep it, DeGeneres said.
Footage of a sobbing DeGeneres begging for the agency to “please bring the dog back to those little girls” was replayed endlessly on the Internet and celebrity news shows, triggering an outpouring of support for the performer.
One owner of Mutts and Moms, Marina Baktis told Pasadena police that she received several threats on her cell phone and her work phone. Police said they had no suspects as yet.
DeGeneres pressed on with her public plea for the dog’s return on Wednesday during her own weekday talk show and a separate radio interview with Ryan Seacrest, host of the hit TV talent contest “American Idol.”
She told Seacrest that she had heard the dog had since been placed with another home, and she gave more details about how Iggy was taken back by Mutts and Moms during an emotional, three-hour standoff at the home of her hairstylist.
Baktis was able to claim the dog “technically” still belonged to her because her name alone was on the pet identification microchip implanted under the dog’s skin, DeGeneres said. She said Baktis had failed to add DeGeneres’ name to the chip, as promised, at the time of adoption.
She also said that contrary to the agency’s stated rules, DeGeneres was never asked to fill out an application, nor was any inspection of her home conducted before she took possession of the puppy last month.
“I didn’t say, ‘You can’t come to my home.’ I didn’t say, ‘I won’t fill out a form.’ She didn’t ask me to,” DeGeneres said.
Neither Baktis, Mutts and Moms, nor their representatives were immediately available for comment.