Anna Delvey has revealed that she is now selling ‘Bunnygate’ merch after she was accused of dumping rabbits in Brooklyn after a photo shoot last week.
Delvey became embroiled in controversy when two bunnies she used in a photo shoot were found abandoned in a New York park.
The Russian native, 34, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, is famously known for falsely posing as a German heiress to gain social status and defrauding a series of banks, hotels, and individuals out of $275,000.
The controversial star faced immense scrutiny over the rabbit incident, however, she later said she was unaware of how the bunnies were procured for the shoot, and a 19-year-old assistant has since taken full responsibility.
But now, Delvey seems to be poking fun at the incident while trying to make a difference as she has announced that she would be selling T-shirts referencing the ordeal, with 20 percent of the proceeds going to a non-profit that protects animals.
In an Instagram post sharedWednesday, she posed in the shirts, which contained a picture of the bunny on it and read, ‘Missing’ at the top, followed by ‘Have you seen me?’ underneath.
‘The scandal they couldn’t stop talking about, now on a shirt that demands what the law doesn’t: accountability for abandoned animals,’ Delvey wrote in the caption of her Instagram post.
‘Provide the market and the demand that keeps the Bunnghazi pseudo-story going,’ her message continued.
Anna Delvey, seen here in July, is selling ‘Bunnygate’ merch after she was accused of dumping rabbits in Brooklyn following a photo shoot last week
‘Perfect for anyone who’s ever been wrongfully or rightfully accused, judged or misjudged, convicted or acquitted, or who aspires to be known for their well-knownnes,’ the caption read.
‘Wear the outrage and let the internet know you survived #Bunnygate. Limited run. Unlimited shade. Stop abandoning domestic pets in parks, and stop trying to pin it on me!’
She also linked to a Change.org petition in her Instagram bio, which called for making it ‘illegal to abandon domestic animals in public spaces,’ among other things.
‘Right now, in many places, abandoning a pet is barely treated as a crime, if it’s enforced at all. That needs to change,’ the petition read.
‘The Delvey case proves that even when the story is big enough to grab national attention, the animals’ safety still depends on the quick action of volunteers, not on strong laws that prevent abandonment in the first place.’
At the time, posts on local Facebook pages in the area alerted neighbors to the rabbits, with many guessing they were pets due to their domesticated nature.
Eagle-eyed Reddit users noticed that both of the rabbits looked identical to the ones featured in images and pinned Instagram Stories posted by Delvey during the recent shoot, which showed her posing on the streets of New York with two bunnies on leads.
However, it turned out that it wasn’t Delvey herself who dumped the animals, but rather an assistant on the independent shoot.
She seems to be poking fun at the incident while trying to make a difference, as 20 percent of the proceeds going to a non-profit that protects animals
The assistant, Christian Batty, initially denied the bunnies that were found in the park were the ones used on the shoot, but he later released a statement claiming responsibility.
Batty confessed to dumping the rabbits in Prospect Park, assuring people that Delvey wasn’t aware of the situation, and that he sourced the animals for the shoot.
In a statement posted to social media, which Delvey re-shared, he added they were being fostered by someone in New York for the time being.
‘It was an unfortunate situation, but the bunnies are OK now,’ he wrote in the statement, in part.
In a statement supplied to the Daily Mail at the time, Delvey said: ‘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 with 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, he had obtained them via Facebook marketplace and intended to release them to 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.
‘I am highly disturbed by what transpired. As talent, it’s not my job to source or return animals, but as am 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 have no involvement in the acquisition, transport, or return of these animals. I would never condone these actions.’
