Kim Kardashian alarms PETA, others by appearing to house her dogs in garage: ‘You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat animals’

Kim Kardashian ended what’s been called her most controversial, “problematic” year yet with a particularly upsetting scandal that has alarmed the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and her animal-loving followers: She has apparently revealed that she keeps her two Pomeranians in the garage of her 15,000-square-foot Los Angeles-area mansion instead of letting them live in the house with her and her four children.

The revelation about her dogs’ possible living arrangements came via a video that someone uploaded to her daughter North’s TikTok account — then quickly removed. The video shows the dogs, Sushi and Sake, in a fenced-in area of the garage, with a crate, dog beds and bowls.

PETA’s senior vice president found the video disturbing and decried the garage enclosure as inappropriate housing for “highly social pack animals” like dogs.

In a statement to Page Six,  Lisa Lange said, “Knowing that Kim Kardashian is anti-fur and mostly vegan, we are hoping hard that she does not relegate her dogs to life in a garage.”

“What PETA does know is that dogs are highly social pack animals who need more than just soft beds and decorative stockings: They deserve to feel safe, loved, and to live inside the house as part of the family,” Lange said.

Whoever posted the video may have initially thought it showed how lucky and pampered the Kardashian dogs are because their enclosure was decorated with a Christmas tree and stockings. But the video’s quick removal suggested to some that Kardashian’s team realized they had inadvertently publicized a dark, family secret.

Many on social media were quick to criticize Kardashian for apparently relegating her dogs to the place where she keeps her cars, with one person on Twitter saying, “You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat animals.”

This person and others said the billionaire shapewear mogul could certainly afford to hire someone to look after the dogs in her 15,000-square-foot Calabasas mansion, or she could build them their own well-appointed dog house on this and any of her other properties in Malibu or Palm Springs.

Some also speculated that Kardashian was concerned about giving her dogs free rein of her Calabasas home, concerned that they would mess up its famous aesthetic. The home, featured in Architectural Digest and Vogue, boasts a clean, mostly white minimalistic look.

But others defended Kardashian, saying that her garage is probably more spacious and luxurious than most people’s apartments.

But her reputation took a hit this year with several P.R. “fails,” including when she angered fans by saying in an interview that women could be more successful in business if they stopped complaining and worked harder. BuzzFeed News also noted that she was accused of triggering people with eating disorders by boasting about the crash diet she went on to lose an extreme amount of weight in order to fit into Marilyn Monroe’s dress at the Met Gala. More recently, she was blasted for taking a week before criticizing brand partner Balenciaga for its ad campaign that featured toddler girls surrounded by teddy bears dressed in BDSM-style outfits.