Brigitte Bardot Is Trying to Save 2 Million Feral Cats

The Australian government has recently unveiled a five-year plan to terminate two million feral cats and Brigitte Bardot is not happy about it. The French actress, animal activist and namesake of a popular off-the-shoulder summer garment wants the government to reconsider. “This animal genocide is inhumane and ridiculous. In addition to being cruel, killing these cats is absolutely useless since the rest of them will keep breeding,” Bardot said in an open letter to Federal environment minister Greg Hunt. The cats have been identified as the main cause behind the extinction of Australia’s native animals.

Last week, Hunt announced a strategy that would help the existence of 20 different mammal, 20 bird and 30 plant species. Bardot believes the money should be spent on large-scale sterilization, according to The Guardian. “Your country is sullied by the blood of millions of innocent animals so please, don’t add cats to this morbid record,” Bardot said in the letter. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy reports the continent as having the worst mammal extinction rate in the world. 30 of Australia’s mammal species have been lost since European settlement.