Brigitte Bardot, French actress and president of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, holds a magazine with a picture of a baby seal during a news conference with the Franz Weber Foundation calling for a boycott of Canadian goods at the International Conference Center in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec. 5, 2005.
(Photo: Associated Press/Nicolas Ratzenboeck)

In addition to her film career, French actress Brigitte Bardot, who died Sunday at the age of 91, was an animal rights activist and a staunch opponent of the Canadian seal hunt.

Bardot, considered one of the greatest icons of 20th-century cinema, was the first international celebrity to publicly speak out against the Canadian seal hunt in 1976.

The following year, she traveled to Newfoundland to witness the hunt firsthand. When reporters asked her about the purpose of her trip, she replied, “To save the baby seals, that’s all.”

During the trip, Bardot was photographed holding a baby harp seal, known as “Whitecoat.” The CBC reported that Bardot’s protests led to a sharp drop in the price of seal skins, which affected the livelihoods of fishing communities in eastern Canada and the Arctic.

In 2006, Bardot returned to Canada to protest the commercial harp seal hunt.

She had hoped to meet with then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper during the trip, but the Conservative government refused to grant her request.

The Guardian reported that Bardot told a news conference in Ottawa that she was “begging” and hoped to see an end to “this barbaric slaughter” before she died.

Seals weren’t the only animals Bardot worked to protect in Canada.

In 2022, Bardot condemned a controversial plan by a Montreal suburb to kill more deer in a local park. In a letter published on her foundation’s website, she urged the mayor of Longueuil, Quebec, to stop what she called “the planned slaughter by slingshot” in Parc Michel-Chartrand.

The letter read:
“If these innocent animals are sentenced to death, groups of hunters armed with deadly slingshots will invade a place that is usually peaceful and popular with families and tourists, bringing death to the heart of your city.”

Ultimately, 105 deer were killed in an operation that city officials said was necessary to restore the park’s ecological balance.

The website of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada states that the government closely monitors the seal harvest. According to the department, amendments to the Marine Mammal Regulations in 2009 have made the annual seal hunt “more humane” and include a three-step process to ensure the animals are killed “promptly and humanely.”

The website also emphasizes that only seals that have reached “self-sustaining” age are allowed to be hunted.

“The hunting of harp seal pups, known as whitecoats, and hooded seal pups, known as bluebacks, is illegal in Canada and has been prohibited since 1987. The seals that are hunted are independent and self-sufficient animals.”

Other celebrities who have condemned the Canadian seal hunt include Pamela Anderson, Paul McCartney and Sarah McLachlan.

The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, founded by her in 1986, is dedicated to animal protection and calls for an end to practices such as animal shows, animal testing and bullfighting.

The foundation's website contains information about Bardot's anti-seal hunt activities, and a picture of her with a baby seal can be seen on the site's homepage.

A post published in September 2024 said Bardot had continued to fight for seals even after turning 90. Last year, the European Union began reviewing its ban on the import of seal products.

In contrast, a group of Canadian senators from Yukon, British Columbia, and Newfoundland and Labrador called on Europe to repeal the ban last year, arguing that “the social and economic consequences of the ban on coastal communities in eastern Canada and Nunavut have been catastrophic and that the debate on seal hunting is riddled with misinformation.”

However, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation website states that Bardot sent an open letter to the president of the European Commission last year, urging him to focus on strengthening animal protections rather than rolling back existing laws.

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