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Brigitte Bardot threatens to quit France over elephant euthanasia

2013-01-07 347 Dailymotion

Screen icon turned animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot is threatening to abandon her native France, and ask for a Russian passport.

The veteran animal rights campaigner - seen here at a Paris anti-fur march in 1994 - says she will leave France over the treatment of two circus elephants.

The animals, named Baby and Nepal, face a court order to be put down over fears they carry tuberculosis.

In a scathing statement, Bardot says France has become an "animal cemetery".

The elephants owners plan to appeal to save the pair, which are being kept in a zoo away from the public.

Bardot's threat comes after fellow actor Gerard Depardieu became a Russian citizen, in protest at high tax rates proposed by France's Socialist government.