July 16, 2007

Britney Spears has plenty on her plate these days, what with two tots in diapers, an unstable living situation, a long-delayed comeback album and a jam-packed schedule of club-hopping, extension-detangling and paparazzi posing.

But that hasn't stopped the matted-maned, meltdown-disposed cautionary tale from buying a new puppy, a decision that has People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals saying "ruh-roh."

People reports Brit, whom you'll recall was voted the World's Worst Dog Owner last year, popped by Pets of Bel Air on Friday and made a beeline for the dog section, where she was immediately smitten with an adorable $3,000 Yorkshire terrier.

"She picked up the dog and loved it right away," a bystander tells the magazine.

Spears, whose three previous pets -- Bit-Bit, Lucky and Lacy -- were reportedly given the heave-ho ("We gave all the dogs to friends of ours," her not-quite-ex-hubby Kevin Federline told Teen People last September. "It's just too much with the kids and all these dogs running around all over the place. It just wasn't really working."), quickly plunked down her credit card and strutted out cradling the teeny and likely trembling tail-wagger.

We decided to ask PETA what they thought of Britney's apparent impulse buy, and, not surprisingly, the up-with-animals group isn't convinced her purchase of a furry, four-legged and nonjudgmental new companion is a case of puppy love.

"Britney needs a new puppy about as much as Lindsay Lohan needs a drink," PETA Vice President Dan Mathews tells MSN Entertainment. "She can barely look after herself and her kids, and she's tossed away so many dogs before. The only dog Britney is responsible enough to care for is a stuffed toy."

Matthews' advice for Spears: "She needs to surrender him to her local shelter for placement in a real home."

So did Britney, who recently picked up a parakeet at Petco and was also seen snuggling a pink-sweatered Chihuahua in January, prove the naysayers wrong by acting like a responsible pet owner this weekend, perhaps by taking the puppy for a walk with sons Sean Preston, 22 months, and Jayden James, 10 months, or gently working on some training techniques?

Not so much.

Shutterbugs snapped Brit, whose weekend style statements ranged from a Daisy Duke-ish halter-top to the pink wig Natalie Portman wore to play a stripper in "Closer," one-handedly toting the hapless canine to a dance studio and carrying it into a nightclub, where X17.com reports it was "crying all night and found comfort only in Brit's arms."

As for the Yorkie's name, People says she's dubbed it London, which just happens to be one of the monikers she was mulling over while pregnant with Sean Preston (it was an apparent homage to the landmark locale of her fateful first hookup with K. Fed).

"Ever since I was a little girl, I thought, for a boy, I love Sean Preston -- or London Preston," Britney told Elle in 2005. "Isn't London pretty?"

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