Animal rights group PETA have called Britney Spears a “toxic mess” after she released a new music video featuring elephants.

The video for 'Circus', the title track from Spears' latest album, portrays the singer as the ringmaster at a circus.

In a blog on the organisation's website, activist Christine Doré said Spears had employed a “bottom of the barrel” move by “sporting elephants dressed in circus attire”.

“As Britney is such a victim of the paparazzi and always complaining and crying about how she hates to be held up in her guarded house and can't feel free, she of all people should be able to relate to the horror that captive animals go through when they're used for entertainment,” Dore wrote.

“Except Britney chooses to perform, and the lifestyle just comes with it. Animals are ripped away from their mothers at a young age, kept in chains, and prodded with electric shock devices to make them perform”.

She added: “Britney is now just an 'outrageous' and 'toxic' mess. I certainly don't want her to 'gimme more', and neither do the animals who have been abused so that she can feel 'lucky'.”

(by Jason Gregory)