Brigitte Bardot ‘Working Herself to the Bone’ for Animal Rights at 90: Fighting ‘Keeps Her Strong’

Brigitte Bardot is still a spitfire at the age of 90 and looking to help wildlife any way she can, and source exclusively tells Closer these causes are keeping her energized and even keeping her alive to some extent.

Brigitte, who has been fighting for animal rights for nearly 50 years, since she met the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson in 1977, made the cause her reason to continue well beyond retirement age.

“She spends hours a day writing letters on behalf of her beloved animals, wild and domestic,” the insider says. “It’s what keeps her strong and motivated. She doesn’t have time to slow down. There’s never a cause too large or small and right now one of her many passion projects is saving a wild boar.”

As the source notes, the movie star has been recently campaigning to spare the life of an orphaned wild boar in her native France, named Rillette, who authorities want to put down, as the animal can pose a threat to human and livestock via disease transmission. Though, the boar’s “owner,” who discovered her as an abandoned piglet, claims she now treats Rillette like a dog and that she even comes when called by her name. 

A petition to save Rillette has gained over 170,000 signatures online, with Brigitte throwing her weight behind the effort to let the boar remain with her adoptive human parents, despite them usually being a nuisance to farmers and a prize to hunters in France.

“Help! I demand that Rillette be spared. What monsters are demanding she be put down … this little animal has the right to live, indeed it is a duty. She is innocent. Euthanasia is a crime! We are governed by assassins,” the golden-age star wrote in an open letter of support. 

“She’s a fighter and sometimes she burns a bridge or three but it’s why she’s able to get things done,” the source says. “Brigitte was one of the world’s greatest sex symbols of her time and she’s using her celebrity to push for new protective measures and boss authorities around.” 

While Rillette may be Brigitte’s most recent cause, the retired actress is lauded for using her fame – she appeared in over 40 movies throughout her career – to stand up for animal rights. She even established her own Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals in 1986, auctioning off some of her jewelry and personal belongings to fundraise over three million Francs, or about $430,000, to kick start the initiative.

The Foundation has been crucial to spreading awareness of animal rights in Europe and the United States, including leading a boycott on the human consumption of farmed horse meat citing concerns over cruelty. From Denmark, to China, to Australia, Brigitte has fought for various animal-related causes in seemingly every corner of the globe.

“She may be a notorious recluse, but she’s working herself to the bone behind the walls of her French villa. Animals are her whole life. She prefers them to people.”