After PETA called out Pete Davidson for buying a dog for his mother from a pet store instead of adopting one from a shelter, the “Saturday Night Live” alum left one of its execs a furious, profanity-ridden voicemail, for which he later apologized.
“Thank you so much for making comments publicly that I didn’t adopt a dog,” Davidson said to Daphna Nachminovitch, PETA’s Senior VP of Cruelty Investigations, in a voicemail on Monday, as heard in audio shared by TMZ.
“I just want to let you know I’m severely allergic to dogs, so I have to get a specific breed,” he added. “I’m only not allergic to cavapoos, and those types of dogs. And my mom’s f–king dog, who’s two years old, died a week prior, and we’re all so sad. So I had to get a specific dog.”
And then Davidson unleashed an explicit tirade on Nachminovitch, who had previously issued a statement to TMZ about his dog purchase.
“So why don’t do your research before you f–king create news stories for people, because you’re a boring, tired [expletive],” he said. “F–k you, and s–k my dick.”
In a statement about Davidson’s voicemail, PETA said, “If Pete had done his research, he would know that there’s no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog, that at least a quarter of dogs in shelters are purebreds, and that Petfinder has listings for homeless dogs of every breed under the sun, including the one he purchased.”
Davidson told TMZ, meanwhile, that he didn’t know he could adopt “a specific hypoallergenic dog” and that he was told it wasn’t an option.
The “Bupkis” actor also regretted the language he used but didn’t regret speaking out. “I haven’t seen my mom and sister cry like that in over 20 years,” he said. “I was trying to cheer up my family. I was already upset that the store had filmed me without my permission or acknowledgement. Then this organization made a public example of us, making our grieving situation worse.”
He went on: “I am upset. It was a poor choice of words. I shouldn’t have said what I said, but I am not sorry for standing up for myself and my family.”