Iggygate Heats Up

Or: Ellen DeGeneres Torpedoes Would-be Dog Savers' Careers

By now, almost everybody knows about the strange case of Iggy, the dog that comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres adopted and then passed along to her hair dresser's family. My only question about the whole affair is this: what did Marina Batkis and Vanessa Chekroun, proprietors of Mutts and Moms (the animal rescue operation that originally gave the dog to DeGeneres) hope to gain by yanking the dog away from an eleven year-old girl and her family?

One assumes they meant to flip the figurative finger at DeGeneres, apparently for being a "celebrity" who could "always get her way" because of her status. Yet one also can't escape the feeling that Batkis and Chekroun aren't the sharpest tools in the shed. After all, DeGeneres has a considerable soap-box on which to stand. Had they thought this through, Batkis and Chekroun surely should have understood that taking on DeGeneres in this manner could only result in career suicide.

Yet take on DeGeneres they did, and in an unthinking and unfeeling manner. Following this story I'm reminded of the classic T-shirt; you know, the one with the caption "The Last Great Act of Defiance." In this case Batkis and Chekroun are the mice, and Ellen DeGeneres is the eagle.

Mutts and Moms is dead. Batkis and Chekroun may as well pick up the want-ads and begin looking for new occupations. Ladies, Ellen just stuck a fork in you, and you are done. You look like jerks, and Ellen looks like a sympathetic figure who just tallied another notch in her belt. Nice work, Mutts and Moms.