Zeenat Aman’s unique plea to the film industry: ‘Avoid bringing wild animals on set’

Veteran actress Zeenat Aman asked her fellow celebrities not to bring wild animals to filming locations in a lengthy Instagram post. The actor talked about how she was recently horrified to see an elephant on a set suffer.
The actress shared her deep love for wildlife in a heartfelt post. She posted two pictures of herself holding figurines of elephants, and in the second, she included a piece from a 1974 newspaper that showed Zeenat Aman and Dev Anand attending an animal welfare function.She laments seeing an old elephant in pain on a movie shoot and muses about the moral ramifications of her line of work.
“I was brought to tears recently when I arrived on set to find an elderly, domestic elephant on the scene. She was standing on the burning asphalt, bejewelled and bedeckedâ€æ and she stayed there all day as the cameras rolled. I was bound by contract to do my job, but I am absolutely guilt-ridden that such a majestic animal suffered for my job and your entertainment, (sic)” she wrote.

Zeenat also urged her colleagues in the industry to refrain from bringing animals onto filming locations. “It is my sincere and urgent appeal to my colleagues and compatriots in the film industry to avoid bringing wild animals onto set at all costs. We are so lucky that India hosts the majority of the Asian elephant population in the world, and that this species is our National Heritage Animal. We are also blessed to have numerous organisations in India that work toward the welfare and conservation of this incredible animal. I am sharing a few resources from such organisations on my stories. I will be elated if you peruse them.”
Citing an older news article, Zeenat Aman disclosed, “My concern for wildlife is an old story – please swipe to see a snippet from 1974 – but it is only now that I am in a position to make more concerted appeals on these matters. And since I could not bear to pose with the beautiful elephants that was subject to the chaos of our set, here is a picture of me with ‘my’ elephants that I have collected over the years.”
Meanwhile, on the work front, Zeenat Aman will be next seen in the film ‘Bun Tikki’. The film will also feature Abhay Deol and Shabana Azmi in important roles.