February 13, 2026 05:14 pm (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Rs 5,000 to women ahead of Tamil Nadu polls! Vijay slams Stalin, says: ‘take the money, blow the whistle’ | Modi congratulates Tarique Rahman as BNP clinches majority in Bangladesh polls | Bangladesh Polls: Tarique Rahman-led BNP secures 'absolute majority' with 151 seats in historic comeback | BJP MP files notice to cancel Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership, seeks life-long ban | Arrested in the morning, out by evening: Tycoon’s son walks free in Lamborghini crash case | ‘Why should you denigrate a section of society?’: Supreme Court pulls up ‘Ghooskhor Pandat’ makers | Bangladesh poll manifestos mirror India’s welfare schemes as BNP, Jamaat bet big on women, freebies | Drama ends: Pakistan makes U-turn on India boycott, to play T20 World Cup clash as per schedule | ‘Won’t allow any impediment in SIR’: Supreme Court pulls up Mamata govt over delay in sharing officers’ details | India-US trade deal: ‘Negotiations always two-way’, says Amul MD amid farmers’ concerns
Samyukta Singh

Samyukta Singh opens up about her love for pets

| @indiablooms | Jun 21, 2022, at 11:41 pm

Mumbai: Actress Samyukta Singh’s association with animals, especially dogs goes back a long time. She has two pets at the moment and loves them to bits.

“I am an animal lover for sure. Right now, I have two pets, a one-year-old Labrador whose name is Pacino and a two-year-old rescue cat who was given to me when he was barely a month old. His name is Coco,” she says, adding, “I have loved animals since childhood, mostly dogs. My first pet was a Pom. His name was Fluffy. I got him when I was in school. Then I had my earth-angel Husky. He was a golden retriever. He passed away about 8 years ago and is the main reason for me to get into the protest against Yulin dog/cat eating festival and the Kerala dog culling, and giving up non-vegetarian as well.”

She has always supported animal causes.

“I joined a group of activists and some celebrities against the fight to stop the culling of stray dogs in Kerala. We did quite a good job to bring awareness to people who were clueless as to what was happening. We had a lot of celebrities who did video bytes for us, including Varun Dhawan and Anushka Sharma. We also recorded a beautiful song but, unfortunately, we couldn’t shoot or release it,” she says.

In fact, she has even started eating vegetarian food because of her love for animals.

“When my Husky passed away and I got into an online protest against the Yulin Dog Eating Festival, I got to see a lot of atrocities that these wicked people were doing to helpless animals. That's when I decided to give up non-vegetarian food. I still cook, but I cannot get myself to eat any meat anymore. I don’t want to be a preacher because I have eaten non-vegetarian food all my life. But it’s just an internal repulsion I get with the thought of it now, it’s a personal thing. Animals are so beautiful and dogs are the purest form of unconditional love. My Pacino is a gangster and thinks he owns me and I love it. I never thought I could love a cat as much as I love Coco. He was so tiny when I got him.  How can people be so cruel to another living thing? Honestly, I wish I could do more for animal rights. Right now, I can only do what’s in my capacity," she says.

The actress also runs a successful Japanese-Korean restaurant called Tsubaki (at Worli, Mumbai).

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.