Dia Mirza Is PETA India's Person of the Year 2023 (instagram.com/diamirzaofficial/)
Bollywood actress, Dia Mirza has chosen as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India Person of the Year 2023 for championing the cause of animals, their protection and welfare.
Congratulating Dia Mirza, PETA India wrote on social media handle X: “For speaking out against using reptile skins to giving a voice to Ellie, Asia’s first educational animatronic elephant teaching kids across India to be kind, Dia Mirza is inspiring change!”
🏆 Congratulations, @deespeak, PETA India’s 2023 Person of the Year! 🌟
For speaking out against using reptile skins to giving a voice to Ellie, Asia’s first educational animatronic elephant teaching kids across India to be kind, Dia Mirza is inspiring change! #DiaMirza… pic.twitter.com/L40rq71Uj5
— PETA India (@PetaIndia) December 13, 2023
Launched in this year, Ellie is Asia’s first realistic educational animatronic elephant introduced by PETA India. Ellie”s voice was given by Dia Mirza, and it visits schools across India, teaching children about the importance of kindness and empathy. Besides, Ellie offers a unique first-person perspective on the lives of real elephants used in circuses, for rides, and in other cruel spectacles, PETA India website reads. Since May, when Ellie was launched it has communicated with over 40,000 young learners close to 200 workshops at private, public, government, and international schools in Mumbai and Pune. Dia Mirza also extends her support to PETA India’s petition to ban the use of all animals in circuses.
Earlier, actor has joined PETA India’s campaign to end the killing of reptiles and other wild animals for their skins and posed as a snake in an eye-catching appeal and appeared in a video encouraging viewers to pledge never to buy exotic-animal skins, the website added.
Previous recipients of PETA India Person of the Year Award include former Supreme Court Justice KS Panicker Radhakrishnan, cricketer Virat Kohli, comedian Kapil Sharma, and actors Alia Bhatt, John Abraham, Anushka Sharma, Sunny Leone, Sonakshi Sinha, R Madhavan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Hema Malini, and Sonam Kapoor Ahuja.
(With inputs from PETA India website)
