Hyderabad: Hyderabad cricketer Pragyan Ojha on Tuesday joined the list of celebrities who have teamed up with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to voice the cause of cruelty towards animals in zoos. The Indian left-arm spinner locked himself up in a cage with a placard that read: “Try to relate to their fate: say no to zoos” at an event in the City. “Just the thought of getting locked up in a tiny cage, even for a short time, makes my head spin. Think about the animals who are locked up their entire lives. Animals don’t belong in cages. They deserve to roam, explore, socialise and enjoy freedom just like us,” a PETA statement quoting Ojha read.
Despite the 2009 Central Zoo Authority ban on keeping elephants in zoos and requiring zoos to move elephants gradually into forest areas, the Hyderabad Zoo still exhibits the animals. Captive elephants are typically separated from their families as babies and are sentenced to a lifetime of boredom, loneliness and even abuse. They are often forced to stand on hard concrete and spend hours on end in chains, PETA said in a statement.
Denied everything that is natural and important to them, animals in zoos often express their frustration and loneliness through obsessive, repetitive and even self-destructive behaviour, such as pacing, head-bobbing and self-mutilation, PETA said. South African cricketer Wayne Parnell, shuttler Jwala Gutta, sitar player Anoushka Shankar and actor Rahul Khanna are among other celebrities who have teamed up with PETA to highlight the cause of “cruelty of zoos.
