Anna Delvey is under fire!
Over the weekend, the controversial con artist took part in a photo shoot featuring bunnies on leashes. They were stored in a notable cardboard box with a towel, as fans noticed on Instagram.
See some BTS shots Anna posted:
Soon after the shoot, though, three bunnies were found abandoned in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. A few folks online instantly recognized them as the bunnies from the photo shoot. Outcry took over social media as folks accused Anna of ditching the poor defenseless animals!
See the bunnies that were found HERE.
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So after spending the day with the bunnies, they somehow ended up alone, ditched in NYC! WTF?! That’s terrible!
According to Page Six, there was no purpose for the photo shoot — which included Anna, a photographer, a hairstylist, and a friend — and no one person in charge of it, which has thus created a LOT of problems! Fans have accused Anna of animal abuse for allowing such a thing on her watch. Sounds pretty bad…
But she’s now claiming she’s not to blame for any of it!
In a statement to her Instagram Story on Monday, the Dancing with the Stars alum claimed it was a young man on her hair team who secured and then ditched the animals! She wrote:
“As many of you are aware, I recently did a shoot with Jasper Soloff involving live rabbits. Christian Batty, a member of the hair team I briefly met during a fashion week event last year, responded that he knew someone who could lend us bunnies for a few hours.
I later discovered that, instead of borrowing animals from a legitimate source like he claimed, he had obtained them via Facebook Marketplace and intended to release them into Prospect Park, a plan of which I had no knowledge. The idea that someone would compromise the well-being of innocent animals for personal networking opportunities is deeply disturbing to me.”
Anna insisted securing animals wasn’t her job as “talent” and that she had no reason to think there was anything off about the situation. However, she doesn’t stand by what happened! She continued:
“I am appalled by what transpired. As talent, it’s not my job to source or return animals, but as an animal lover, I can promise I will never work with them again without knowing exactly where they came from and how they’re getting home. I do not eat meat, and I had no involvement in the acquisition, transport, or return of these animals. I would never condone these actions. I will gladly do whatever I can to ensure these rabbits are rehomed safely.”
The 34-year-old then shared text message screenshots with the photo shoot group, in which they questioned Christian about how he got the bunnies and if it was true they’d been dumped in the city. He wasn’t too forthcoming with what happened at first as they accused him of spreading “lies.” Yeesh! They eventually got it out of him that he had left the animals in the park after he “panicked” when the owner “blocked” him. But he claimed he had “deleted” his messages with the owner and couldn’t confirm the arrangement details.
The group then determined the woman had posted on Facebook that she needed to “surrender” her bunnies, and when Anna eventually reached out to that woman, she confirmed she was never meant to retrieve the bunnies. Christian had allegedly lied. Yikes. Anna explained:
“Christian Batty lied for days about returning the rabbits. Turns out his plan all along was to dump them.”
In a statement of his own (which he shared before deleting his IG), Christian admitted he “panicked” and “believed, mistakenly, that there were existing rabbits in that area” of the park here he left the animals. Like he was returning them to the wild. Huh.
See Anna’s full stance on this and all the screenshots:
Wow!
In a statement to Page Six, the photographer’s attorney, Gary Adelman of Adelman-Matz, insisted, “This was not Jasper’s photoshoot,” adding:
“Jasper had no knowledge or input as to how the bunnies were obtained or what happened to them after the photo shoot. […] Thankfully the bunnies are safe and being cared for. Jaspar [sic] is a huge animal lover, has grown up and cared for animals, such as birds, cats, dogs, parakeets, iguanas, and has a lovely dog named Tinkerbell and would never be involved in the harming of any animal.”
The bunnies are now being fostered, so that’s good. But whoa. This got really complicated and messy AF!!
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[Image via Anna Delvey/Instagram]
The post Anna Delvey Accused Of Using Bunnies In Photoshoot — Then Just LEAVING Them In A Box In The Park! What Really Happened?? appeared first on Perez Hilton.