French actress and animal rights champion Brigitte Bardot has written an open letter to Environment Minister Greg Hunt, slamming Australia’s proposed feral cat cull.

Mr Hunt last week announced plans to eradicate two million, or about 10 per cent, of Australia’s feral cats by 2020 to help protect threatened native species.

While describing cats as “tsunamis of violence and death” for the nation’s mammal population, Mr Hunt said their eradication would be carried out humanely.

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However, Ms Bardot says Australia has a morbid record of killing animals and is urging the government to reconsider the plan which she says is being viewed internationally as “appalling”.

“This animal genocide is inhumane and ridiculous. In addition to being cruel, killing these cats is absolutely useless since the rest of them will keep breeding,” she says in the English translation of the letter to Mr Hunt published on Wednesday.

Ms Bardot says the money set aside to destroy the animals would be better spent on setting up a large-scale sterilisation campaign.

“Your country is sullied by the blood of millions of innocent animals so please, don’t add cats to this morbid record,” she adds.