Anoushka Shankar: Zoos are no place for animals!
People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India's long time friend, world-renowned and internationally aclaimed sitarist Anoushka Shankar has appeared in a brand new ad for PETA, in which she peers soulfully through iron bars, with the text "Exotic Animals Belong in the Wild, Not in Zoos", appearing beside her. The famous artist and new mom wants her fans at home and abroad to know the trauma that animals locked up in zoos go through, and also that their true nature can't be appreciated if they are kept in captivity. The ad was shot by ace photographer Dabboo Ratnani, and has Anoushka sporting an outfit created by international fashion designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla.
Anoushka says, "I choose to entertain people for a living, but animals are locked in barren enclosures and put on display against their will. They can't choose, but we can; please boycott zoos."
The holding of animals in zoos deprives them of their natural environment, causing them to get extremely frustrated and lonely, and they express it by obsessive, repetitive and even self-destructive behaviour, like pacing, head-bobbing, and sometimes self-mutilation too. A four decade long study by Oxford University deduced that polar bears, cheetahs, lions and tigers in captivity show the most evidence of stress and psychological dysfunction. Thus they concluded that keeping naturally wide-ranging carnivores should be fundamentally improved or phased out completely.
This ad would be the second time that Anoushka Shankar has come out publicly in support of PETA and its activities. She had earlier appeared in a 30-second public service announcement along with her father, the legendary Pt. Ravi Shankar, to encourage the government to increase the currently weak penalty for cruelty to animals; she has also performed at a star hotel in Mumbai exclusively for PETA to raise awareness of the plight of animals in zoos.
Come on people! Let's do our bit for the poor animals in captivity, and not encourage their ill treatment.
