In an Instagram post last month, actress and liberal activist lena dunham stated that she gave up her adopted dog, Lamby, because of aggressive behavior that was the result of years of abuse at the hands of the dog's previous owners.

After reviewing its records, the New York shelter from which the dog was adopted is now coming forward to refute Dunham's story.

According to Dunham's Instagram post, Lamby endured "terrible abuse" as a puppy at the hands of previous owners. After four years of ownership, the actress decided to re-home Lamby, turning him over to The Zen Dog, a Los Angeles facility that specializes in treating dogs with behavioral problems.

Shelter says Dunham lied about dog's history

The Brooklyn Animal Rescue Coalition (BARC), however, claims that Lena Dunham fabricated the entire story about Lamby's past.

“We checked the records for Lamby,” said BARC spokesperson Robert Vazquez to Yahoo News on Thursday via email. According to BARC's records, the dog was voluntarily surrendered because its original owner did not have the time to raise Lamby.

"We do not know where she got ‘multiple owners that abused the dog,’” he added.

Vazquez emphatically refuted Lena Dunham's version of the story, stating that BARC would never have adopted Lamby to Dunham if the dog had behavioral issues. "We don’t lie about the dogs’ histories because that gets them returned," stated the spokesperson for the Brooklyn no-kill shelter.

In fact, Vazquez seems to suggest that it was Dunham's own failures as a responsible pet parent that caused Lamby to develop behavioral problems. He stated that it was "hard to believe" that Lamby had aggression issues because the actress has been known to take the dog with her to public events.

Dunham, who adopted the dog with boyfriend Jack Antonoff in January of 2013, continues to cling to her version of the story-- even though BARC has records that cast serious doubts on her version of events.

Actress refuses to apologize

After the story appeared on Yahoo, Dunham returned to Instagram to double down on her assertion that the animal's previous owner(s) were abusive. She stated that although she acknowledges the shelter has a conflicting version of Lamby's early life, she refuses to apologize. "While I’m sorry to have disappointed them, I can’t apologize,” she wrote, adding, "Why should this story be subject to scrutiny and anger?

It is willfully misunderstanding the truth."

Dunham then blasted the Brooklyn shelter, stating that they were not present in her home and did not witness the "consistent and responsible care" that the actress provided.

Vazquez, who has spent the past fifteen years in charge of adopting out dogs at BARC, stated to Yahoo that he was present on each of the four occasions Dunham visited the shelter prior to Lamby's adoption and cited multiple examples of the dog's public outings with its celebrity owner which, according to him, prove that the dog did not exhibit any aggressive behaviors until after he was adopted by Dunham and her boyfriend.

“I have pictures of the dog loving on Lena and her mom, which is weird if the dog was abused," said Vazquez.

"It wouldn’t be cuddling with her or be in the bed with her boyfriend in the pages of Vogue.”

Lamby's story does appear to have a happy ending, however. The Zen Dog and Dunham both say that the dog is doing well and appears to be happy in his new surroundings.
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