Lena Dunham has been accused of craving negative attention and going out of her way to fish for it. If that really is the case, she’s getting her wish.
Remember how Lena Dunham may have abandoned her dog Lamby and lied about the reason, stirring up all sorts of ire from dog-lovers and decent human beings everywhere?
Well, she has at least one person defending her decision. Bear with us, but … there’s a chance that Lena did the right thing here.
So, as you may recall, months after rehoming her dog, Lamby, Lena Dunham announced that she’d done it.
It’s hard to imagine rehoming a pet, because they’re part of your family.
Like, you don’t give up your kid for adoption when they’re 8.
(Not voluntarily, anyway)
But Lena gave a reason.
She claimed that Lamby had serious aggressive behavior.
Many adopted dogs don’t come from great backgrounds, so behavior can be an issue.
But Lena says that even after having Lamby for so long, the problem behaviors — which included biting — hadn’t gone away.
“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.”
The thing is that the shelter from which Lena adopted Lamby said that Lamby wasn’t “crazy,” and also that he was put up for adoption because the previous owner “didn’t have enough time” for him.
That doesn’t preclude a history of being abused, but it doesn’t quite match her claims either, you know?
Matt Beisner, owner of the Zen Dog, is a dog-trainer whose help Lena sought.
And Lena Dunham’s dog-trainer is backing up her story.
Beisner described Lamby as “really aggressive” and not wanting to be touched.
“He didn’t want to be touched and he didn’t want to be handled.”
That part’s not so unusual for unfriendly dogs dealing with strangers, but it gets weirder.
“When he came to us, there were days where we had to carry his crate out to the yard and open it to let him come out because we couldn’t safely put our hands near him to get a leash on him to walk him.”
That’s unusual.
(Like, I was a dog-walker for some rescue dogs who had for sure had horrible backgrounds in a previous home, and that’s unusual)
Beisner was even able to specifically address the shelter’s claims that Lamby wasn’t “crazy.”
“The dog that we see in the shelter is often not the dog that we see in the home.”
That makes sense, of course.
Being in a shelter must be terrifying.
Being in a new home is strange and full of uncertainty, but that fear usually goes away with time.
“And often the dog in the home on day one is different than the dog that we see at the six-month mark.”
Unfortunately, that’s true.
Sometimes “getting comfortable” in a new environment means trying to exert dominance or whatever caused Lamby’s biting behavior.
Lena Dunham might actually be on the up-and-up with this one.
We’re not saying that we’d take Beisner’s word for it completely.
He is, after all, someone whom Lena once paid.
It’s no leap to suggest that he might have extra motives to remain in her good graces (plus he’s getting publicity).
But it’s hard to see him going to People and lying.
He has a professional reputation to maintain.
So, while maybe he might avoid blaming Lena for not being sufficiently accommodating or not coming to him earlier or whatever … if he says that Lamby was extraordinarily aggressive in a way that wasn’t going to be fixed living with Lena, we believe it.
If Lamby really is in such a great place now, maybe it’s for the best.
Some dogs need specialized environments and we guess that Lena was able to get him that.
We hope that this doesn’t discourage other people from adopting dogs.
Because dogs are wonderful.
And dogs in shelters don’t deserve to have to stay there when they could have loving homes and join someone’s family.
Sure, some might come with baggage — some don’t like men, for example.
(There are plenty of humans with that same baggage and it comes from experience in both cases)
But most of them adapt to their new homes and learn to trust their new humans.
It’s just that Lamby and Lena Dunham clearly weren’t meant to be.
Maybe now we can go back to worrying about Lena’s next huge tattoos or whatever else she does when she wants more attention.
