BollyWood Stars Line-up To Stop Animal Cruelty

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - From being chained or caged, to posing with cheetahs and being painted in stripes, Bollywood stars are increasingly lending their time and energy to highlight cruelty faced by India's animals.

Actor Rahul Khanna on Wednesday became the latest celebrity to publicize the inhumane treatment of animals -- joining a long list of stars, including Aishwarya Rai, Shilpa Shetty and Madhuri Dixit.

Dressed in a torn T-shirt, shackled in chains with bruises painted on his body, Khanna posed in an advert with the tagline "Beaten, shackled, abused - elephants do not belong in zoos" for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

"It's a simple fact. When a celebrity speaks, people listen," said Anuradha Sawhney, chief functionary for PETA India.

"Every time a celebrity speaks out for a cause, be it for animal abuse in circuses, or their conditions in zoos, or the suffering in factory farms, a lot of compassionate people come forward to find out how they can help."

PETA offices get flooded with calls, letters and e-mails from people asking questions or enlisting their help, said Sawhney. Aishwarya Rai wrote a letter on behalf of PETA to help save an endangered black rhinoceros in South Africa, Shilpa Shetty donned a body-hugging tiger-striped bodysuit urging people to boycott circuses and Madhuri Dixit wrote to the government in support of elephants. Other stars include actor John Abraham who posed with an open cage saying "Let birds fly free" and dancer Rakhi Sawant who stood for almost five hours to have her body painted in tiger stripes for an anti-circus ad.