Canadian singer Allie X is responding to allegations of animal abuse after she left her dog in the car while shopping at Erewhon health food store in Studio City, California.
It all started when recording artist Simon Curtis tweeted a video on Saturday (Aug. 6) of what turned out to be Allie pulling out of a parking space. “Anyone know this disgusting Karen?” he wrote alongside the clip. “Found a golden lab panting and pouring saliva in a locked car in the bald a– open sun with closed windows and no AC in 95 degree heat at erewhon just now- we called security, the police, and stood with the car for almost 20 minutes…”
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After Allie X was identified, Curtis unleashed a series of additional tweets, writing, “Thank you to everyone who helped quickly identify this person. Animal abuse is something I will go to f—ing war for, and nasty Karen behavior from someone who has made an entire career off the backs of queer people?? BYE @alliex.”
anyone know this disgusting Karen? Found a golden lab panting and pouring saliva in a locked car in the bald ass open sun with closed windows and no AC in 95 degree heat at erewhon just now- we called security, the police, and stood with the car for almost 20 minutes… pic.twitter.com/Nmgouyn4GA
— Simon Curtis (@simoncurtis) August 7, 2022
Following backlash from social media users, Allie X shared her own statement on Monday (Aug. 8), revealing that her dog, named Koji, was in the car for 11 minutes and when she returned, “the car was cool inside” and Koji was “completely okay.”
“I say those as facts, not defensively,” she wrote. “I want to be clear that there was absolutely no ‘crowd forming’ around my car and absolutely nobody was ‘watching a dog die for over twenty minutes.’ There would be footage if that was true.”
She added, “I wasn’t laughing like a ‘Karen’, I was laughing because I was frightened and uncomfortable of these two men outside of my car. These details matter, and because of the dramatizations I’ve received hundreds of attacks and death threats made more terrifying by the fact that this person posted my face and my identifiable information with the sole intent to dox me.”
Allie X went on to apologize for the situation, as she didn’t know that it was illegal to have a dog in the car without the window open. “I actually felt it was safer to keep the windows up because I had the AC blasting at 60 F right before I got out and wanted to maintain the cool temp,” she wrote. “I regret doing anything that could hurt [Koji] in anyway, and I won’t do it again.”
To conclude her statement, Allie directed her words toward Curtis specifically, thanking him “for your concern” on the situation. “I feel it necessary to say though, perhaps a conversation would have been more productive than what transpired?” she wrote.
“Bullying me, making fun of the way I look etc feels like a strange way to fight for animal rights… so does using it as an opportunity to promote your music,” she added, referring to Curtis’ tweet encouraging his followers to listen to his music if “you want clear skin and don’t abuse dogs.”
Stream my discography if you want clear skin and don’t abuse dogs https://t.co/Eqwizqvmfg
— Simon Curtis (@simoncurtis) August 7, 2022
“We all have our own ways of communicating and I understand you were very upset in the moment,” Allie wrote. “I felt cornered and scared of you. Koji’s philosophy is to see the best in people, so maybe we should give that a try.”
See her full statement below.
pic.twitter.com/oFxinKmwwM
— allie x (@alliex) August 8, 2022
UPDATE: Curtis sent a follow-up statement to Billboard on Tuesday (Aug. 9) standing by his version of events after Allie’s comments on Twitter. “My account of the events, as described in my tweets, is a factual timeline, without exaggeration or embellishment.”
