Bardot blasts China over civet cat slaughter

French film legend and animal rights campaigner Brigitte Bardot has sent a letter to China’s president urging him to end a policy of killing civet cats in the country‘s fight against SARS.

The letter to President Hu Jintao, dated Wednesday, lashes out at China’s “cruel and barbarous slaughtering methods” of animals and claims there is no scientific proof about which animal species first caught the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, virus.