TVSquad

It's clear that Ellen DeGeneres didn't know what she was in for when she sobbed on her television show earlier this week about a dog rescue gone bad. Ellen cried as she told the audience how she adopted a dog from an animal rescue organization, but it didn't get along with her cats, so she gave it to her hairdresser. That violated the agency's adoption rules, so the agency took the dog away from the heartbroken hairdresser and her family. Ellen pleaded for the agency to return the dog and apologized for screwing up.

Then things got ugly. Fans of Ellen began harassing the rescue organization by sending angry--and sometimes threatening--emails. The owner of the organization said the threats scared her so badly that she closed her doors and stayed home on Wednesday.

On today's show, Ellen asks viewers to leave the organization alone. But she also says that she wants it to return the dog to the hairdresser because the woman's daughter is so attached to it.