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August 07, 2000

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All for the Animals

In recent years, Indian celebrities have started taking a keen interest in animal welfare organisations.

-Natasha Israni

In Late 1999, MTV veejays Cyrus Broacha and Nafisa Joseph were part of a campaign to plead the case of mistreated dogs. Since June this year, Indian spin bowler Anil Kumble has been actively involved with NGO People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) which works with the suffering creatures. International celebrities like actresses Kim Basinger, Brigitte Bardot and Pamela Anderson have been advocating animal rights for ages. Of late, a virtual flood of Indian celebrities seem to be doing the same.

Says dog-lover Broacha, who is associated with Welfare of Street Dogs (WSD), a Mumbai based NGO, "I like to pitch in any which way, to increase awareness." So, he's aided strays, pushed the WSD cause on his shows and now wants to make an amusing film on a dog's average day. Ex-Miss India Nafisa Joseph recently posed with an adorable dog called Bunmaska Basanti, for a cute WSD advertisement encouraging adoption of street dogs. In fact, fashion photographer Atul Kasbekar shot these ads for free, with Joseph, Broacha and model Rahul Dev as his bit for the animal cause. Similarly, model Aditi Gowatrikar plans to visit schools to educate children about animals. Former actress and superstar Nagarjuna's wife, Amala Akinneni set up an animal welfare centre called the Blue Cross of Hyderabad in 1992. Her centre sterilises 25 stray dogs everyday to bring down their numbers. The centre also runs a mobile veterinary hospital with 15 well-trained volunteers and two vets. Amala, who believes in "beauty without cruelty", is vegetarian and anti-silk as well.

Fierce animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi who started People For Animals (PFA) in 1994 explains how personalities help the cause. "They give us their time," she says. "Filmstars, singers and artists are huge crowd pullers in India." Gandhi recalls Madhuri Dixit, Dimple Kapadia and several artists who've supported PFA, and in just six years this welfare organisation has raised over Rs 2 crore. Besides, they now own 25 ambulances which travel to other states to assist other animal welfare organisations. More personalities like Mahima Choudhary and Anupam Kher are slated to get involved in animal issues. Maybe celebrity involvement will encourage common people to focus on animal rights.

-with Methil Renuka and Leher Kala

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