She gave up her career to advocate for animals and devote her life to protecting them. If Brigitte Bardot left us on December 28, 2025, she can count on her Foundation, but also on heirs ready to take up the torch, just as committed as she is to the love of animals.
The departure of Brigitte Bardot marks the end of an era, but above all that of an absolute pioneer of the animal cause, who knew how to transform her celebrity and her aura into a formidable weapon for the defense of animals. As early as 1962, at just 28 years old, she broke the rules by demanding the stunning of animals before slaughter, thus showing her commitment to television, which led her, in 1973, to definitively give up cinema to devote herself to the most vulnerable. From her emblematic action on the ice floe for baby seals in 1977 to the creation of her Foundation in 1986, she has continued to shake up consciences and challenge the political world.
Today, her legacy is immense: the Brigitte Bardot Foundation has more than “12,000 animals collected in BB’s Ark, actions in 70 countries, 4 shelters, 300 employees, hundreds of volunteers and 40,000 donors“, recalls the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in a press release paying tribute to her after her death on December 28, 2025. BB has never given up in the face of politicians to advance legislation in favor of innocent animals, or to convict the perpetrators of mistreatment… Now, “its legacy remains alive through the actions and struggles that the Foundation pursues with the same passion and loyalty to its ideals.” assures the Foundation.
“Delphine, you are my heir”
But she can also count on the unwavering commitment of certain personalities who paid tribute to them by reminding that they too would continue their fight for the defense of animals, like the former Miss France 2012 Delphine Wespiser whom Brigitte Bardot considered her “heiress”. “There are so many of us animal warriors mourning you today“, wrote the host and columnist in a publication which compares the two beauty queens and their fight for animals.
In turn, Karine Ferri, “very admiring” of the fights that Brigitte Bardot has accomplished for the animal cause, published a touching message on social networks. She first recalls “these essential struggles carried out” (“the compulsory stunning of animals before slaughter, the end of crash tests on live animals, the ban on the ivory trade, the end of tests on animals for cosmetics, the condemnation of acts of zoophilia, the ban on fur, the end of dolphin and orca shows”)… But the host, also very committed to animals, promises one thing above all: “I will continue your fight, alongside those who give their time and energy: shelters, associations, volunteers“.
The fight therefore continues through many personalities who share the same love for animals and who will undoubtedly take over for the most vulnerable. We can of course cite personalities such as Hugo Clément, incredible defender of animals on a daily basis, the host Nagui, long involved with the SPA, as well as Pamela Anderson who fights against the use of fur and the force-feeding of geese alongside PETA or even Mélanie Laurent, involved with the Sea Shepherd organization.
