Screen legend Brigitte Bardot is calling on animal lovers to boycott Canadian maple syrup until the country bans seal hunting.

The longtime animal rights activist is calling for a complete snub of Canada's most iconic consumer product to put pressure on the government to stop the culling of hundreds of thousands of seals a year.

The North American country produces nearly 85 per cent of the world's maple syrup - and Bardot insists the best way to force powerful people to listen is to hit them in the pocket.

Writing on the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) website, she says, "Massive ethical reactions from consumers can sometimes convince a government or a corporation to change the way that it does business.

"That is why I am supporting PETA's boycott of Canadian maple syrup until the Canadian government agrees to ban the slaughter of seals on the ice floes, the largest massacre of marine mammals on Earth, forever."

The And God Made Woman star travelled to Canada in 2006 to urge Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ban commercial seal killings, but was refused a meeting.