Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Life's a bitch for Paris Hilton's pets

Paris Hilton's decision to add a miniature pig to her ever-growing bunch of pets has PETA and a few others seeing red.
Self-proclaimed animal lover Paris Hilton recently bought a mini-pig to add to the veritable menagerie of animals she keeps at her Los Angeles home.

The tiny pigs, which grow to a full weight of around 29 pounds, are super cute and the hottest trend in pets at the moment in the US. Prices start at US$3,500 for the kind Paris purchased and go as high as $4,500.

Paris purchased her pig from this site. Check for pictures. The pigs really are adorable, although the site refers to her as ‘Paris Hilton animal lover extraordanair.'

"So excited for my new piglette to come home to me," Hilton Tweeted, revealing she plans to call her little porker Princess Piglette.

PETA, never a fan of the Hilton for her unrepentant fur-wearing ways, was certainly not impressed by Paris' piggy purchase.

The organisation claims the heiress sets a ‘wretched example' of pet ownership by treating her pets as though they're ‘as disposable as her friends and fiancés.'

"The Chihuahuas, ferrets and kinkajous she's paraded through her home in the past were not accessories, and pot-bellied pigs aren't either," PETA sniped in a recent press release.

How does someone who claims to be the ‘single busiest person on the planet' (I suppose Barack Obama's just sitting around on his arse then?) have time to spend with all these animals? The short answer is, she doesn't.

She ‘loves' animals, but not in the nice, normal way that you and I do. Can you imagine her cleaning up cat vomit, giving sick dogs medicine, or sponging a turd off the carpet? Not likely.

Unlike celebrity dog lovers like Charlize Theron, Drew Barrymore and Oprah Winfrey, the only time Paris is photographed with her dogs is when she's pimping out their cute factor for her own ends.

Of course, every follower of celebrity knows of her original Chihuahua, Tinkerbell. The heiress has since added another 16 dogs to her brood, admitting to Ellen DeGeneres on her show last year that she owned 17 dogs, and that she had to keep giving puppies away because her dogs weren't neutered and kept giving birth.

When chastised by Ellen, a long-time animal lover, Paris said she had since had her pets neutered. Then admitted two of the dogs weren't.

You are aware it only takes two dogs to make puppies, right, love?

As well as Tinkerbell she boasts Dolce, Marilyn Monroe, Harajuku Bitch, Prince, Bambi, and a Rottweiler called Tyson amongst her brood. There is a ferret in there somewhere, and a goat and a monkey are also rumoured to call Paris' place home.

Anyway, this disclosure got Paris into a bit of hot water with the California Department of Animal Services, since it's illegal in the state to have more than three dogs living on one property unless you're a breeder. Of course, Ms Hilton assumes the rules don't apply to her, or never bothered checking. Probably a bit of both.

An animal services rep dropped in on a surprise visit to the Hilton household to examine her dog situation soon afterwards - but because the house was undergoing major renovations at the time there were no dogs around.

Not neutering your pets is irresponsible enough, but Paris has also purchased puppies from a Beverly Hills pet store which was closed down weeks later by the state of California for buying its dogs from puppy mills.

Later the same year Hilton stopped into an LA pet shop on the way to a photo shoot. Presumably her outfit was lacking something, and Paris wanted a Yorkie puppy to ‘make it look cuter.'

Staff turned her down as they deemed her request an impulse buy, not a well thought out pet purchase, and Hilton reportedly hit the roof, screeching "I love my puppies! I want my baby!"

It makes sense that she treats animals as fashion accessories. It's totally in line with her vacuous approach to life.

In May 2007 Hilton adopted a kitten, called Prada, from a rescue organization - under the proviso that she have the cat neutered within the next six months.

By January, Hilton still hadn't bothered to take the kitten in for the procedure and the Kris Kelly Foundation got in touch to get it in motion. The kitten was dropped at a local vet by a housekeeper - and neither Hilton or any of her staff ever came back to get him.

Perhaps she was over cats that week?

The founder of the Kris Kelly Foundation, quite rightly, was furious.

"We gave Ms. Hilton every opportunity to do the right thing for Prada but she failed to comply and then abandoned him. After seven days no-one from her household has even contacted us or the vet's office to check on the wellbeing and whereabouts of poor Prada. We now have Prada in a foster home and have no intention of giving him back to Ms Hilton. She has proved to be a negligent pet owner."

Added the foundation's President, Linzi Glass: "Being a pet owner requires a level of responsibility and maturity. It is clear that Ms Hilton lacks the maturity to take care of anyone or anything but herself. It is our belief that rescue animals need extra love and attention. Prada is a scared and frightened cat who has rarely been held or socialised."

Reports then emerged that Paris believed Prada would be delivered back to her from the vet's ‘like a pizza.'

Kinkajou Baby Luv, which Hilton had to give up as they were also illegal to keep as pets in California - had the right idea and bit her owner on the arm during their short-lived association.

While filming the D-grade horror flick House of Wax in Queensland a few years ago, Paris apparently thought it would be cute to ship a baby kangaroo home to add to her menagerie.

The idea of a baby ‘roo to impress her American friends lost its sheen somewhat when Hilton found out the animals actually grew up. Said her sister Nicky at the time: "She wanted to buy one, but then they told us that kangaroos get as tall as humans and start punching you in the gut."

Mind you, Australians have never been great fans of the Hilton. When she pranced around Bondi Beach during an Aussie visit last summer, Sydney beachgoers threw sand at her. Hee.

I know she's notorious for not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, but that's no excuse for not taking proper care of your pets. Don't believe for a minute the hype about oh-she's-really-very-smart-but-the-whole-dumb-blonde-thing-is-an-act. Girlfriend is dumb as a post. AND she earned $24m in 2007. Yes, you read that right. We can all be depressed together.

How would her job allow her to properly look after animals? Jetting around the world pimping quality products like sparkling wine in a can, her own brand sunglasses, and Paris Hilton fragrance (I always imagine it to smell like lip gloss, fake tan and cheese on the turn) is hardly conducive to caring for a small zoo's worth of pets.

Which, apparently, she doesn't. It's long been rumoured that Paris leaves her animals alone in her LA mansion for months at a time when she jaunts off overseas with a visiting housekeeper to provide food and water. In one unsubstantiated but rather resilient rumour, a housekeeper arrived at the Hilton residence to feed the dogs and found one had been locked in a wardrobe at the place - and subsequently starved to death.

I have no evidence that this is true. But it wouldn't surprise me. And if it's true, horrendous! I despise her even more than I did already.

Is she irresponsible, living too hectic a lifestyle, or just a neglectful idiot? Or an irresponsible, neglectful idiot? God forbid that this woman should actually reproduce. What would she do with a baby human?

Leave it in the changing room at Tommy Hilfiger? In the bathroom on Diddy's yacht? Leave it to fend for itself in a pile of used hair extensions?

The mind boggles.

It can't be easy being Paris Hilton's neighbour at the best of times - The noise! The pink! The cooties! - but even these people have noticed Paris' laissez-faire approach to looking after her animals.

One, Shelby Segall, told The Post a couple of years ago: "She treats her animals horribly. They are always getting out and running around the neighbourhood. She had a little orange kitty about a year ago that kept getting out and we kept telling her it was outside. She didn't seem like she cared, and then one day the cat got run over in the middle of the street and died."

Another neighbour told the paper: "I found two little Chihuahuas of hers running up and down the street with cars and people going up and down. I put them in my bathroom and called Paris. Her assistant answered and said ‘You can't drop them off! Miss Hilton isn't home!' She took three hours to come and get them. Meanwhile she lives five hours away."

Yet other celebrities don't get away with as much as Ms Hilton when it comes to the case of their pets. Ellen DeGeneres found herself in hot water in late 2007 when she and partner Portia de Rossi gave away a dog they adopted from an LA agency to a friend of Ellen's and her family because the dog, Iggy, didn't get along with Ellen's two dogs and three cats.

Police were called and the animal forcibly removed from its new family home by the agency, which then rehoused the pet. They were responsible pet owners that violated a clause in a contract that said they wouldn't pass the dog on to a third party.

Ellen cried on TV, the agency received hate mail, and all over a little dog finding a happy home.

But Paris can abandon kittens and leave puppies to fend for themselves and no-one says boo to a goose?

She may own 17 dogs, but when it comes to animal welfare it's Paris that's the biggest bitch in that household. And as all of us who have an animal in our lives know, owning one does not necessarily make you an animal lover.


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