Ellen’s pooch Iggy gets a new home

Shelter not revealing the new family’s name to protect their privacy

LOS ANGELES - The pooch at the center of the dog-adoption drama between Ellen DeGeneres and an animal rescue agency has found a new home.

Iggy was placed with a new family earlier this week, a spokesman for the agency’s owners said Friday.

“We’re not revealing the family’s identity to protect their privacy,” attorney Keith A. Fink told The Associated Press. “The dog is fine.”

The tug of war over the little dog named Iggy began after DeGeneres, who had initially adopted the terrier mix, gave the dog to her hairstylist after Iggy couldn’t get along with her cats.

Marina Batkis and Vanessa Chekroun, who own the nonprofit Mutts and Moms adoption agency, said DeGeneres violated her signed agreement, which called for Iggy to be returned if things didn’t work out.

Iggy was removed from the hairstylist’s home on Sunday during a confrontation that DeGeneres said left the woman’s daughters in tears.

After DeGeneres opened Tuesday’s show with a tearful plea for the dog’s return, Batkis said she and Chekroun were deluged with angry messages and phone calls, including death threats.

“Ellen sitting in her yacht, sipping cognac, and these two women are devastated,” Fink said Friday.

DeGeneres, meanwhile, was so upset by the incident that she canceled tapings of Friday’s and Monday’s shows. Reruns were scheduled to air in their place.

On Thursday’s show, DeGeneres said things had “gotten out of hand” and she urged people to calm down.

“I want nothing, nothing more than that dog returned to that family,” she said. “But you don’t resort to violence. So anybody out there, please stop that. Please don’t threaten or do whatever.”