Animal lovers rescue rabbits from a building sealed by the LDA

After being locked up for 15 days without food or water in a building sealed by the Lucknow Development Authority, two rabbits, a male and a female, were rescued on Saturday morning by a team comprising local animal lovers, Lucknow police and officials of the LDA. The rabbits had subsisted on paper and cardboard for more than a fortnight.
Kamna Pandey, an animal activist who facilitated the rescue of the animals, says, "It was brought to my notice by Sushant Pandey, another animal activist from Lucknow, that there was a building in Gomti Nagar which had been sealed by the LDA for illegal construction and that two rabbits had been locked inside the building.He had been told this by the building owners. So when he told me that it had been nearly 15 days since the rabbits were locked, I was shocked."
She adds, "My first thought was that maybe the two animals have already died of hunger and thirst and then of immense anger at the sheer negligence of the owners of the building who didn’t even inform the authorities about these animals being inside the building. And worse still was that the female was pregnant."
Immediately getting into action, Kamna then approached Kaushal Raj Sharma, district magistrate,Lucknow to help in the situation, who then in turn got in touch with Prabhu N Singh, vice chairman, LDA.
“The two agreed to help us, or rather the rabbits, immediately," says Panday, adding, "The DM was so helpful that he arranged for their release even after office hours. He spoke with the VC of LDA who waited till after office hours and gave immediate orders for the building to be opened. But since it had been closed on a court order, we had to procure one to break the seal. But the next day in the morning we got the court order and in the presence of Lucknow police officials and officials of the LDA, the seal was broken and the rabbits were rescued. We were so happy to see the two rabbits alive, albeit weak due to lack of food and water," says Kamna, who can’t thank the Lucknow DM, LDA VC and Sushant Pandey enough for saving the lives of these rabbits and their unborn babies.
"I can’t thank them enough. This is the first time I’ve seen government officials be so proactive and help in such a cause," she says, adding, "And I also want to specially thank Sushantji for informing us in time and helping us in the rescue. Without him, it couldn’t have been possible."