‘Vanderpump Rules’ Star Lala Kent Slams Tom Sandoval for Playing with Captive Tiger: ‘I Am Appalled’
Lala Kent accused her ‘VPR’ co-star of ‘animal abuse’ after he shared a controversial video at a tiger zoo in Thailand.
Lala Kent is upset with Tom Sandoval once again, but this time it’s not because of his cheating scandal. Lala, 33, slammed her Vanderpump Rules co-star on social media on January 3 after he visited a tiger zoo in Thailand. Tom, 40, shared a video on Instagram of himself sitting on the ground as a tiger got on his shoulders with help from two zoo employees. This upset Lala, who is passionate about animal rights and has worked with PETA before.
“I am appalled by the photo my cast member took with a tiger in captivity,” Lala wrote on her Instagram Stories after seeing Tom’s video. “This topic has been close to my heart for many years. What is disguised as ‘fun’ and ‘cool’ is, in fact, animal abuse. It’s heartbreaking. I’ve made noise about educating yourselves, & here I am to tell you again… Do not support places like this.”
Lala’s co-star James Kennedy also slammed Tom for playing with a captive tiger in Thailand. “I would never go to a place like this , …… Let them all run free !! 🐅 ❤️ always found this cruel and so sad,” James, 31, wrote in the comments section of a fan account’s repost of Tom’s video. James also got in a dig at Tom in a second comment. “Just a Worm 🪱 without a mustache now 🤦♂️……. 😂,” he wrote, referencing his infamous insult from the Vanderpump Rules season 10 reunion.
Tom has been in hot water with the VPR cast ever since he split form longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix in March after having a months-long affair with Raquel Leviss. Tom’s co-stars, including Lala, James, Katie Maloney, and Scheana Shay, all supported Ariana and piled on him at the reunion that filmed last spring. Several months later, Tom revealed on his podcast, Everybody Loves Tom, that he felt suicidal thoughts after the “Scandoval.”
“There were some times when I felt very, very close [to suicide],” he said. “Your world just starts collapsing itself and you cannot see outside of your feelings. Your peripheral goes away, your sense of thinking about future, about like, ‘Oh come on,’ like, you’re ability to snap out of it goes away.”
Season 11 of VPR began filming less than four months after Tom and Raquel’s affair was exposed. Raquel decided to quit the series and has stopped all contact with her former co-stars, including Tom. The new season premieres January 30 on Bravo.