Anna Delvey is pushing back against claims that bunnies featured in her recent photoshoot were later abandoned in a New York park.
Last week, the former Dancing With the Stars contestant and ex-con posted behind-the-scenes clips with the animals, including a TikTok of her doing the “High School” challenge alongside a baby rabbit.
Plant-based influencer Terry Chao, who had rescued the same bunnies earlier in the week, recognized them in Delvey’s posts after learning they’d been left in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Chao says photographer Jasper Soloff’s assistant, Christian Batty, had requested available bunnies for the shoot, leading her to bring them to the Financial District.
Batty later admitted in a statement that he “panicked,” felt “overwhelmed,” and made “the worst possible choice” by abandoning the rabbits in the park. Fortunately, they were found and have since been placed in foster care.
“I am relieved to hear that the rabbits are now safe, but I deeply regret the harm I caused,” Batty said in his statement. “I also want to be clear that Anna and Jasper had no knowledge of my actions until this afternoon, and I ask that any mention of them be removed from the situation.”
Shortly after, Delvey released her own statement, explaining that she met Batty during a NYFW event in 2024, and he told her someone would “lend us bunnies for a few hours.”
She said she was shocked to learn the animals had been sourced through Facebook Marketplace and insisted she had “no knowledge” of them being taken to Prospect Park.
“The idea that someone would compromise the well-being of innocent animals for personal networking opportunities is deeply disturbing to me,” Delvey wrote.
While noting it’s not her “job to source or return animals,” she described herself as an “animal lover” and promised never to pose with rabbits again unless she knew exactly where they came from and “how they’re getting home.” She added that she was “appalled by what transpired.”
“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,” Delvey concluded.
While she emphasized her stance as an animal advocate, Delvey remains infamous for her role in a string of high-profile financial frauds within New York’s social scene, which inspired the former Netflix series Inventing Anna.
In 2019, she was convicted on multiple counts of grand larceny and four misdemeanor counts of theft of service. She served 19 months in detention before being released on house arrest in 2022 after posting a $10,000 bail bond.
