Following Complaints, Former Cricketer Vinod Kambli Relinquishes Five Rabbits to PETA India for Rehabilitation

For Immediate Release:

2 May 2022

Contact:

Sreekutty Bennet; [email protected]

Hiraj Laljani; [email protected]

Mumbai – Following the intervention of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India and local volunteer Shashikanth Purohit, former cricketer Vinod Kambli has voluntarily relinquished five rabbits to the group, which had acted on complaints from residents of Kambli’s housing society that a baby rabbit fell from his balcony and died. In a letter to PETA India, Kambli mentioned that he’s unable to ensure the well-being of animals and pledged never to keep them in his custody again. PETA India’s veterinarian is providing the rabbits – four adults and one juvenile – with much-needed veterinary care, and the animals will then be transported to a sanctuary for lifelong care.

“Rabbits aren’t just cute and fluffy – they’re high-maintenance animals who require significant resources, equipment, attention, and veterinary care,” says PETA India Emergency Response Coordinator Sreekutty Bennet. “Animals purchased from pet stores and breeders are often bought on impulse and soon discarded, kept chained, or confined for life to small cages or tanks. We ask everyone to refuse to support the pet trade, which causes so many animals to suffer.”

All kinds of animals can be found for sale – and kept in terribly inhumane conditions – at animal markets across the country. Puppies and kittens are often forced to sit in their own filth, large birds are stuffed into small cages, star tortoises and other protected animals are sold openly, and fish are kept in barren, dirty tanks. Despite the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, which bans the trade and trapping of indigenous birds, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora – which, among other things, restricts the trade in foreign birds – black markets involving many species thrive openly. In March 2022, however, a large raid was conducted by Delhi police after a tip from PETA India, resulting in the rescue of thousands of parakeets and other birds. More raids are planned.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

#