There have been numerous Teen Mom parenting scandals over the years, but the latest controversy over TM3 star Mackenzie McKee is different for a couple of reasons:
For starters, McKee isn’t really famous anymore, so unlike some of her predecessors who had the good fortune to get pregnant while the basic cable gettin’ was good, it takes a lot more for her to get a genuine WTF?! reaction from social media.
On top of that, this may be the only time that Teen Mom – or any reality show franchise – has been wrapped up in a scandal involving the improper handling a deceased puppy.
In case you don’t follow McKee on Snapchat (What have you been doing with your life?!), she’s been updating fans about the ongoing drama surrounding her pregnant dog, Mia.
Mia finally gave birth to yesterday, and sadly, it seems one of her puppies didn’t survive.
Mackenzie offered online updates on the bittersweet occasion in the McKee household, even as things got increasingly weird:
“Update everyone,” Mackenzie says in the first clip. “Mia just had a C-section, and one puppy made it.”
Generally, it doesn’t get much more macabre than a dead puppy post, but believe it or not, things got darker from there, you’ve been warned:
“OK. So, one of the dogs didn’t make it,” Mackenzie says, “and I don’t know how to tell my son.”
The camera pans over to young Gannon cradling the puppy, clearly oblivious to the fact that it’s gone the way of Old Yeller and like 40 pooches in that sh-tty A Dog’s Purpose movie.
Asked what he plans to do with the puppy, Gannon replies, “Keep it.”
His mother’s appeals seem to fall on deaf ears.
“Gannon, you know that dog is dead, right?” Mackenzie asks.
“Yeah,” the boy replies.
“Gannon, I think that that doggie went to doggie heaven and we need to bury it,” says Mackenzie. “You’re just going to keep a dead dog?”
Gannon eventually hands over the departed pooch, but not before planting a goodbye kiss on its snout, in a moment that some viewers found heartbreaking, others horrifying.
Perhaps anticipating some social media backlash, Mackenzie posted a message explaining the weirdness we had just witnessed:
“Before I start getting all getting all these crazy messages, we did leave the momma alone with the puppy for hours, and she just wanted nothing to do with him,” Mackenzie claims.
“We called the vet and asked everything that we should do, and he said we needed to feed him. So yes, we have done everything that the vet told us to do, and Gannon is having a hard time saying goodbye to the puppy that didn’t make it.”
Hey, kids do weird stuff, and it looks like Mackenzie handled the situation as best she could, especially given all the drama she’s been dealing with in her own life.
In August, McKee welcomed her third child, a boy named Broncs.
Less than five months later, Mackenzie confirmed her separation from her husband amid cheating allegations.
All of this, and a little morbid farm-life weirdness?
It might be time for MTV to look into giving this girl a spinoff.