The Fake Heiress, the Instagram Shoot and the Abandoned Bunnies

It was a scene befitting of a millennial influencer: the fake heiress known as Anna Delvey posing outside a TriBeCa subway station with two bunnies on leashes — and an ankle monitor on her tanned leg.

But not long after, some bunnies that had been procured for the photo shoot with the would-be socialite were abandoned in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, unleashing a torrent of backlash toward the real Anna Sorokin, who in an interview with The New York Times on Monday said that she was not responsible for procuring the rabbits and was “horrified” when she learned that they had been ditched.

“I felt ashamed and embarrassed to be associated with it,” Ms. Sorokin, 34, said.

Ms. Sorokin, who pretended to be a wealthy German heiress and landed in prison for nearly four years for swindling Manhattan’s elite, spent 18 months behind bars in immigration detention for overstaying her visa. She has filled her time lately with photo shoots, publicity stunts and a stint on “Dancing With the Stars.”

On Aug. 3, Ms. Sorokin posted the photo shoot with the bunnies on a New York City sidewalk. The bunny cradled in Ms. Sorokin’s arms was a year-and-a-half-old Harlequin lop named Parker.

But the next day, Terry Chao, a web specialist who blogs about vegan causes in her spare time, spotted Parker in Prospect Park, recognizing the rabbit from a Facebook group where some bunnies had recently been listed as available for adoption.

Parker had been hiding in the bushes near the Endale Arch on Aug. 4, not far from a cardboard box, said Ms. Chao, the online sleuth who helped rescue the rabbit and care for two others that had been part of the photo shoot. She and several other people used a pen with wire gates to help corral the bunnies.

Ms. Chao said that she had also recognized the cardboard box from Ms. Sorokin’s Instagram feed and that it also had a Yonkers address on it, possibly connecting it to the family who put the bunnies up for adoption. The most obvious giveaway, Ms. Chao said, was that someone who had worked on the shoot had earlier reached out to her to scout out available bunnies.

“They went and got those bunnies for the shoot, basically as props, and then dumped them,” Ms. Chao said. “They don’t have any survival mechanisms like wild rabbits do.”

On Thursday, another bunny, Moon, was found not far from the same cardboard box.

Then on Sunday, a third bunny, Joaquin, was spotted in the park near a black carrier, Ms. Chao said. Joaquin and Moon are the offspring of Parker.

Putting the bunnies on leashes and one on its back in a photo, a position known as trancing that can be harmful to rabbits, brought further criticism from those who helped rescue the animals.

Who was in charge of the photo shoot, which took place outside the Franklin Street subway station in Lower Manhattan, remains in dispute. The collaboration between Ms. Sorokin, who appeared in a striped, off-the-shoulder sun dress, and the man who photographed her has descended into finger-pointing in recent days.

Ms. Sorokin said that she had not commissioned the shoot and had agreed to pose for the photographer Jasper Egan Soloff. She said that she had nothing to do with logistics and that another person involved in the shoot, Christian Batty, had said that he could get the bunnies.

“Usually, when you collaborate with a photographer, you kind of let them direct you, because it’s also their creative work,” Ms. Sorokin said.

Gary Adelman, a lawyer for Mr. Soloff, disputed Ms. Sorokin’s telling of the arrangement.

“This was not Jasper’s photo shoot, and he did not arrange any of the details surrounding it,” Mr. Adelman said in a statement on Monday, adding that Mr. Soloff had simply been hired to photograph Ms. Sorokin and saying that “Jasper had no knowledge or input as to how the bunnies were obtained or what happened to them after the photo shoot.”

Mr. Batty, who Ms. Chao said had inquired with her about obtaining bunnies, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday. In a story on his Instagram account, which he appeared to have deleted, Mr. Batty appeared to have apologized.

“When I realized the rabbits were being surrendered to me, I panicked,” he appeared to have written. “At 19, with no experience caring for animals, no pet-friendly housing, and no knowledge of available resources, I felt overwhelmed and made the worst possible choice. Believing, mistakenly, that there were existing rabbits in that area, I released them there, thinking that was my best option.”

Ms. Chao said on her Instagram that Mr. Batty had showed up to help catch Joaquin.

Ms. Chao said that Ms. Sorokin’s explanation did not suffice and that she still bore responsibility for the abandonment of the bunnies, which she said appeared to be pretty healthy. Foster homes have been secured for all three rabbits, according to Ms. Chao, who said that Ms. Sorokin had lashed out at her and other people who criticized her on social media.

“She had the power here to do something about this,” Ms. Chao said.

Ms. Sorokin said that she had been unfairly stereotyped because of her past — her ruse inspired a Netflix series, in addition to leading to the prison sentence.

Ms. Sorokin, who was born in the former Soviet Union and has German citizenship, referred questions about her immigration status to her lawyer, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When she learned that the rabbits had been abandoned, Ms. Sorokin offered to try to help find them homes, she said. In an Instagram story on Monday, Ms. Sorokin posted that she had donated $1,000 to the group All About Rabbits Rescue.

Ms. Sorokin bristled at the suggestion that she would harm animals and said that she does not eat meat.

“I eat fish,” she said.