Former French movie siren Brigitte Bardot has appealed to Serbian President Boris Tadic to stop what she described as the "massacre of stray animals" in the former Yugoslav republic.
"I urge you to end once and for all the ignoble massacre of stray animals in Serbia," she wrote in a letter to Tadic on behalf of her animal welfare foundation.
She described what she termed the "brutal cleansing" of stray animals in Belgrade as an "atrocity", saying it could not be justified as part of preparations for events such as the recent Belgrade marathon or the European Championship of basketball due to take place here later this year.
Bardot, 70, was famous for her often sexy film roles in the 1950s and 1960s, but has not made a film for 30 years and now devotes herself to animal welfare.