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World Animal Day: Dia Mirza, Vivek Oberoi, Kunal Kemmu and other celebs urge to not forget about animals amid pandemic
On World Animal Day, we got a few celebrities to share their views on how the pandemic affected animals as much as they did humans and what is the way forward from here on.
Initially when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country, the unawareness led to misguiding rumours about the animals spreading the virus, which resulted in increase in abandoning of home pets. This human ignorance caused great distress not only to pets but also to stray animals. Here’s what some celebs have to say about being more compassionate towards animals.
Dia Mirza: The plight of animals has always been vulnerable. The pandemic and the fears associated with virus have lead to many people abandoning pets. There are of course many good samaritans that work every day to ensure animals are cared for.
Kunal Kemmu: With the country being locked down for months on end many animals have died of starvation. The pandemic definitely has caused difficulty to not just those pets who have been abandon and those pets who are left home alone and their humans are in quarantine and cannot look after them. But has also affected street animals immensely. I really hope that just like us this planet belongs to all these animals as well and that we can cope with these times together.
Shreyas Talpade: Luckily that rumours about animals being carriers of the virus ended soon but by that time some damage was already done. People started abandoning them and a lot of us appealed to people to not do that because they are not really at fault in anyway. I am really glad that it really didn’t affect them to that magnitude. Had it been the case it would have been really difficult. We also help the strays and keep food and water for them outside and we must continue to do that.
Vivek Oberoi: People’s priorities change when humans are in peril. The focus shifts and there is a lot less bandwidth to take care of animals who should entirely depend upon us, it has been difficult, especially the strays on the streets. I laud the committed warriors who are putting their lives at risk and being amazing ambassadors for humanity and taking care of animals in such difficult circumstances. I hope that all of us realise how interconnected we are and we remember that living in harmony and is the need to move forward.
Zareen Khan: I have a lot of pets and they are cats. The pandemic has been difficult for pets. For my cats it was okay because they are always in the house but I know that families who abandoned their pets and had their fear that pets would cause Covid. I even had an instance nearby where a Persian house cat was abandoned and then we rescued and a friend adopted her. Animals are always so loving so as human why can’t we provide them with the same.
Sonnalli Seygall : For the pets it has been lovely because they got to spend a lot of time with the humans. But for the animals on the streets, the strays it has been very tough indeed. I have seen it with my own eyes, for their basic food is they are dependent on our waste and since people were not going out and restaurants were shut, they didn’t have much to eat. Me and my mum have been doing our bit and feeding as much strays as we could. We all must be compassionate towards them.
