Actress Brigitte Bardot pens letter against controversial Quebec deer cull

French actress and activist Brigitte Bardot published an open letter to the mayor of Longueuil, Que. Tuesday, urging her to call off a controlled deer hunt at a local park.

The planned cull of nearly 100 white-tailed deer in Michel-Chartrand Park has been the source of much back-and-forth in Quebec's court system, with animal rights activists filing a lawsuit over the summer against the City of Longueuil, on Montreal's South Shore.

Now, just over a week before the plaintiffs make their arguments in appeals court, Bardot took a stance against the hunt.

"If the death penalty is pronounced for these poor animals, teams of hunters armed with their terrible crossbows will invade a usually peaceful place, popular with families and tourists, and sow death in the heart of your city," reads a post on the Brigitte Bardot Foundation website.

Animal rights groups have argued the city should capture and relocate the deer instead of killing them -- a stance Bardot agrees with. The city, meanwhile, has pushed to cull the deer in a controlled crossbow hunt to combat overpopulation.

Bardot takes particular issue with the choice of weapon, pointing to French legislation prohibiting crossbow hunting.

"Crossbow hunting is a cruel practice and totally prohibited in France and in many countries because of its dangerousness and does not guarantee that the animal will be killed instantly," the letter addressed to Mayor Catherine Fournier continues.

In October, a Quebec judge ruled in favour of Longueuil and the deer cull. However, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and Sauvetage Animal Rescue hope to reverse the decision in the Quebec Court of Appeal on Nov. 25.

According to Bardot, her foundation has received "countless messages" concerning the cull.

The 88-year-old former actress, who gained international recognition for her role in And God Created Woman (1956), left entertainment in the 1970s to pursue animal rights activism full-time. Her foundation was created in 1986.