Zhalay Sarhadi is a passionate advocate for furry friends, recently using her social media to call for accountability after the demolition of a pet market near Lahore’s Data Darbar last month. Despite her undoubtedly good intentions in discussing a cause near and dear to her heart, Sarhadi has received flak for talking about animals and ‘ignoring’ the suffering of humans.

She vehemently denied the charge in a video posted to her Instagram account. In the reel, the actress said she was speaking up about animal rights “because there are many things going on around us that are detrimental to animals’ safety and survival”. She added, “That does not mean that I don’t talk about women’s rights, it doesn’t mean I don’t talk about Palestine, and it absolutely doesn’t mean I haven’t discussed Kashmir earlier.”

Saying that all evils deserve attention, Sarhadi said, “[let me] discuss one issue and leave other issues [to others], because we need to…shed light on all these problems and we can find solutions for them.” She asked people to let her talk about what she feels is important and not “intervene and try to make [her] look bad”.