PETA Mobilises Thousands To Vote For Bollywood Beauty On Big Brother

For Immediate Release :
13 December 2006 

Contact :
Karen Chisholm 020 7357 9229, ext 229

London – With thousands of people visiting PETA.org.uk each week, PETA is hoping to give Bollywood superstar and PETA pal Shilpa Shetty a big boost on Celebrity Big Brother thanks to an action alert asking supp orters to vote in her favour.
Contestants on Channel 4’s hugely popular reality show have likened the close quarters to living in a cage, but Shetty can speak from experience. The actor posed for one of PETA India’s most high-profile ad campaigns in India, a sexy anti-circus ad in which she crouched behind the bars of a cage, dressed in a form-fitting tiger-striped body suit, with the tagline “Beaten, Lonely and Abused – Boycott the Circus”.

Why is Shetty so upset by animal acts? Tigers and lions are meant to roam free, but in circuses, they are confined to cages which are barely big enough to contain them. Animals do not naturally stand on their heads or jump through rings of fire, so circus handlers use whips, electric-shock prods and other tools of torture to train them. Circus animals work based on fear, knowing they will be hurt if they do not obey.

“By no means was I comfortable during the photo shoot crouched in that small cage”, explained Shetty. “But what were a few fleeting moments of discomfort for me compared to what life must be like for the precious animals held captive in the circus?”

This isn’t the first time one of PETA’s celebrity supporters has been in the Celebrity Big Brother house. Celebrity Big Brother 2006 featured Dennis Rodman, Traci Bingham and Jodie Marsh, who have all lent their famous faces to PETA ads.

For more information and to view Shilpa Shetty’s ad for PETA, please visit PETA.org.uk. A copy of Shilpa Shetty’s ad is available upon request.