Brigitte Bardot: A Legacy in Animal Welfare

Brigitte Bardot’s most significant and lasting contribution was not to film, but to the modern animal welfare movement. Following her withdrawal from acting, she redirected international attention and resources towards the protection of animals at a time when such concerns were still marginal within public policy and mainstream discourse.

In 1986, she established the Fondation Brigitte Bardot, which has since supported and funded animal welfare initiatives across Europe and internationally. The Foundation has been central to sustained campaigns against the commercial seal hunt, the fur trade, the use of animals in circuses, and poor welfare standards within intensive livestock systems. It has also contributed to practical interventions, including animal rescue and rehabilitation, large-scale sterilisation programmes, and long-term support for shelters and veterinary services.

A notable aspect of Bardot’s later campaigning was her commitment to the welfare of captive elephants. Through her Foundation, she supported the rescue, relocation and lifetime care of elephants removed from circuses and other forms of exploitation, contributing to the development and funding of dedicated elephant sanctuaries and retirement facilities. These initiatives helped shift public and political attitudes towards the use of elephants in entertainment, reinforcing the principle that such long-lived, cognitively complex animals require specialised care and appropriate social and environmental conditions.

Bardot’s advocacy played a significant role in raising political and media awareness of animal sentience, influencing debates around legislative reform in France and beyond. Her campaigning helped to normalise ethical scrutiny of industries that had long operated without sustained public accountability, particularly those involving wildlife exploitation and luxury consumption.

While her methods were often forthright and controversial, her impact is measurable in the institutions she built, the campaigns she sustained over decades, and the tangible improvements in animal welfare that followed. Her legacy within animal welfare and ethics is that of a figure who successfully leveraged cultural capital to force enduring moral questions into public, legal and academic consideration.

Bardot's activism sparked significant controversy over shark management on Réunion, where she opposed lethal culling following fatal attacks between 2011 and 2017, arguing that human activities—not sharks—were to blame. Her interventions were widely criticized for characterizing the island as "irresponsible" and "backward," language perceived as culturally insensitive to communities directly affected by the fatalities, while also oversimplifying the complex ecological and safety factors involved. The case became a cautionary example in academic discussions of celebrity-driven advocacy, illustrating the risks of engaging in human-wildlife conflict without evidence-based, locally informed approaches.