PETA founder hails 'angel for animals' Brigitte Bardot

The founder of the animal rights group PETA paid tribute to Brigitte Bardot's decades of animal advocacy on Sunday after the French film icon's foundation announced she had died, aged 91.

"From her rescued pigeons in Saint-Tropez to her beloved dogs, PETA will miss Brigitte, an angel for animals who went to bat and to court to protect them all," Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's British-American founder, said in a statement.

"She once said that only through protecting animals did she truly bloom - and we call on the public to honour her memory by doing something kind for animals today, so that the seeds she planted continue to flourish."

In 1973, after years as a huge French celebrity, Bardot retired from acting and withdrew to her home in the Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez where she devoted herself to fighting for animals.

In 1986 she set up the Brigitte Bardot Foundation dedicated to animal protection. She crusaded for baby seals and elephants, called for the abolition of ritual animal sacrifice and the closure of horse abattoirs.

PETA gave Bardot a humanitarian award in 2001. She contributed to several of the organisation's campaigns over the years, a spokesperson said, including one in 2013 to get British high-end department store Fortnum & Mason to stop selling foie gras.

Agence France-Presse