Funnyman Hiten Paintal is a true animal lover and this was evident when he ran along with 1500 people in the marathon on Sunday organised at Joggers Park in Lokhandwala. His girlfriend Kishwer Merchantt and friend Karishma Gulzar too participated in the marathon. Hiten admits, "I ran for a group called SOS (Save Our Strays). I've been an animal activist for almost 15 years now and have been affiliated with lots of organizations...be it Peta, IDA, WSD and People for Animals...! My mother Geeta Paintal is a volunteer for SOS & I ran this marathon to create awareness about stray animals. I am also looking for help by ways of funds which will help carry out sterilizations among stray dogs so that the BMC doesn't start to kill animals. We want to control the population by sterilisations and not by killing!" says a vociferous Hiten, who has Balaji's Kasauti Zindagi Kay in his kitty. He is also awaiting the release of his Bollywood film Raath, where he plays the main lead and an out and out negative character. Hiten's family feeds several stray dogs in their vicinity everyday and he declares, "By the way I have four dogs at home out of which three are strays that I adopted from the road and one was an abandoned Labrador / Dobberman mix breed." He feels that there are lots of people who want to do something for the animals but don't know how to go along... for which they may contact him or any animal welfare organisation. Three cheers to this animal lover and may his breed increase!