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Bardot appeals to Thailand over dog trade

Former French actress Brigitte Bardot answers questions outside the Elysee Palace in Paris, on April 15, 2008. Bardot has issued an appeal to Thai Premier Yingluck Shinawatra to clamp down on the slaughtering of dogs in illegal abattoirs

Brigitte Bardot has issued an appeal to Thai Premier Yingluck Shinawatra to clamp down on the slaughtering of dogs in illegal abattoirs. In an open letter published on Wednesday, the veteran French actress and animal rights campaigner claims 100,000 canines are being killed every year in Tha Rae in the northeast of Thailand while a similar number are exported alive to meet a similar fate. "Tha Rae is the centre of a squalid trade in which dogs are killed for their meat or their skin in underground abattoirs after being captured in the street or stolen from their owners," Bardot writes. "Every year, 100,000 dogs are killed there. As many if not more are illegally exported from all over Thailand in atrocious conditions, crammed and starved during a 36-hour road journey in order to be brutally killed and eaten in Vietnam." Bardot urges Yingluck to watch a YouTube video -- "Hell on Earth - Thailand's Dog Meat Trade" -- saying it will not fail to move her.