Britney Spears’ beloved dog Porsha made headlines over the weekend, when it was reported that the Doberman bit an elderly man—allegedly prompting an official warning for the pop star and her husband, Sam Asghari.
TMZ reported that Spears’ pet pooch got out from the “Toxic” hitmaker’s property in Thousand Oaks, California, on Thursday and subsequently roamed the neighborhood before coming into contact with a man who was riding a bike.
According to the outlet, the unnamed man, who was described as being in his 70s, dismounted from his bike and Porsha bit him on his leg before Spears’ security stepped in and took control of the pooch.
Phillip Faraone/FilmMagic;/J. Merritt/FilmMagic
While the man is reported to have gone to local urgent care to have his bite checked out, the injury was described by the website as a “nip.”
On Friday, Asghari, 28, took to his Instagram account to thank a group called Dog Day Search & Rescue, which he said had found two of the couple’s dogs.
“A huge thank you to @dogdayssar for finding our babies that ran like Forrest Gump down the road yesterday. They’re are truly the best,” he captioned the video post that showed him with the pair of recovered pets.
“I’ve been looking for a local rescue team to team up with for such a long time. They are a [non-profit] organization that truly helps. Attached in my bio is a link for donation to this amazing team.”
Asghari also shared video footage of himself asking a representative of the company for advice on GPS collars to track the couple’s dogs, vowing that he would use the devices on his pets.
“Thank you @dogdayssar for not only rescuing, but also providing information on how we can prevent things from happening,” he wrote over the video.
Newsweek has reached out to a representative of Spears for comment.
How Many Dogs Does Britney Spears Have?
Pop star Spears, 41, has long been known as a dog lover, welcoming a host of pets into her abode over the years.
“Thank you for dogs! Dog spelled backwards is God… not sure any correlation but I do think that dogs are extraordinary animals!” Spears said on Instagram last year. “Although I’ve been attacked by 2 dogs in my life… I am still drawn to them!”
Per Celebrity Pets, the star adopted Yorkshire Terrier Hannah back in November 2012 and a Maltese dog called Lacey Loo in January 2013. Other dogs over the years have included chihuahuas Bit Bit and Lucky and Yorkshire terrier London.
In February 2022, Spears announced that she had expanded her family with the arrival of a tan and white Australian Shepherd puppy called Sawyer.
“I found him in Maui like a dream and took him home with me immediately,” she said in an Instagram post. “It’s funny … he doesn’t talk back but it’s like he understands what I’m saying!!!!”
At the time, Spears also announced that she had welcomed a new cat that she later revealed is called Polly.
“My cat is French and very peculiar,” Spears wrote on Instagram. “[She] looks at food as if she is 30 for two min before she eats it … she’s extremely smart and she looks like a miniature cheetah!!!!”
In October 2021, Asghari, who tied the knot with Spears in June 2022, surprised his then-fiancée with puppy Porsha.
Taking to Instagram, Asghari posted a video of himself holding Porsha, as Spears was heard asking off camera: “Who’s the new addition to the family?”
“Her name is Porsha, and she’s meant to unconditionally love you and is gonna be trained to protect you from any mother****** that comes around you with bad intentions,” Asghari responded.
As the Doberman settled into life with the celebrity couple, Asghari revealed that he would not be putting their four-legged friend through the procedure of ear cropping.
The practice of ear cropping has long been done for a range of reasons, from reducing the risk of infection in the dog to plain old cosmetic preferences.
“A lot of you guys are asking if we’re gonna clip the ears, crop the ears, and the answer to that is absolutely no,” said Asghari on Instagram. “The reason for that is, first of all we love her floppy ears. Two, she’s a lover, not a fighter. She’s a protector. And three, it actually turns out that it’s pretty cruel to do that to Dobermans, or any dog.
“It’s actually a fashion statement. It’s something that people do for cosmetic reasons. And all the other excuses that are out there, like an ear infection and this and that, is actually a myth. It’s not true, so we’re not gonna do that.”
“Unfortunately, when we got [Porsha] her tail was already cropped,” he said as he held Porsha. “If I was to go back, I wouldn’t do that to her.”
Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for GLAAD
Asghari went on to add that the surgical procedure and subsequent recovery process “actually affects the puppy psychologically and creates that trauma because puppies are so young and they’re developing.”
However, he admitted that he appreciates the appearance of cropped ears as “it looks like Batman, super aggressive, beautiful.”
“But so is this, it’s adorable,” he said as he motioned to Porsha’s ears. “She’s a lover, not a fighter, like I said. And all the other reasons for that is literally being selfish and it’s a fashion statement.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) founder Ingrid Newkirk commended Asghari for his decision not to crop Porsha’s ears.
“Many truly well-intentioned people, like Sam, don’t have a clue that cropping dogs’ ears is done purely for appearance’s sake and is terribly painful and traumatic to a dog or that the practice is universally condemned by ethical veterinarians and banned altogether in the U.K. and some other countries,” Newkirk told Newsweek.
“PETA thanks Sam Asghari for letting Porsha keep the lovely, natural, floppy ears that she was born with, and we hope that his millions of followers will listen, take note, and love dogs just the way they are.”
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