Shalini Pandey encourages pet adoption with PETA

Actor Shalini Pandey has teamed up with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India) to encourage people to adopt cats and dogs and never to buy them from pet stores or breeders. She shares the advice to "begin a lifelong friendship" by adopting an animal from a shelter. Pandey is herself a guardian of a desi dog, Bir, whom she rescued from the streets in Himachal Pradesh in 2021. Bir now makes regular appearances alongside Pandey on her Instagram.

"Indie dogs and cats are smart, loving, and beautiful, and adopting one (or two, or three!) is the best decision anyone can make," says Pandey. "My friends at PETA India and I encourage anyone who has the time and resources and is ready for the responsibility to adopt an animal from a shelter or rescue one from the streets." Pandey is part of a long list of celebrities – including Jacqueline Fernandez, Alia Bhatt, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Diana Penty, Sonakshi Sinha, Raveena Tandon, Trisha Krishnan, Dino Morea, and Imran Khan – who have teamed up with PETA India to promote dog or cat adoption.

PETA India also warns buyers that "pedigree" dogs – who are typically sold in pet shops – have been purposely bred to have certain exaggerated physical traits such as flat faces and long backs, making them especially susceptible to many health problems, including breathing difficulties, hip dysplasia, heart defects, epilepsy, ear infections, and eye problems.

In contrast, Indian community dogs are typically healthier and more robust because they are not deliberately bred for abnormal physical traits from a small gene pool. Over 60 million dogs and cats are living on the streets in India, while 8.8 million are in shelters because of a lack of good homes. Buying animals from breeders and pet shops worsens this crisis, as every new puppy or kitten means one fewer home for animals on the streets or in shelters.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to abuse in any way" – encourages the sterilisation of companion dogs and cats. Sterilisation is a routine, affordable surgery that can prevent thousands of animals from being born only to suffer and struggle to survive on the streets or to end up in shelters.