A while ago PETA said they weren’t going to go after Britney Spears for any of her PETA-perceived crimes against animals – because she had enough problems in her life. And when PETA tells you they’re going to back off because you’re too crazy to handle them, then you know you’ve really hit rock bottom. But it appears that with Britney’s massive mental, physical, and career improvement comes the news that she’s doing well enough to be back on PETA’s attack list. I guess in a way that’s a sign of progress in her case.

PETA is pissed that Britney used elephants in her music video for “Circus.” They compare Britney’s lifestyle of feeling caged to the pachyderm’s literal caging, and say Britney should be able to understand and empathize with the elephants.

Sadly, I still remember the first time I heard Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time.” I was in the eighth grade and TRL was still wildly cool. My skinny, stirrup-tights-wearing, headgear sportin’ 13 year-old self just couldn’t get enough of the song. I remember thinking we had found a true pop princess.

But man, how quickly America’s sweetheart fell from grace. And it wasn’t pretty. Now, at the bottom of the barrel, she’s sporting elephants dressed in circus attire for her new video titled—what else—”Circus.”

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. 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. That doesn’t sound so voluntary to me.

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.” Well, we’re not takin’ this sitting down. We’ve got a killer action alert ready for those of you who want to fight with us and tell Brit to stop using animals in her acts, once and for all. Click here to take action today.

I must confess that I still believe she can turn herself around.

[From PETA]

I honestly don’t think much of anything is going to get Britney to take PETA seriously. She seems pretty good at ignoring things when she wants to, and no matter how much improvement she appears to have made, she still has much bigger issues to think about. I can’t help but wonder how many celebrity converts PETA gets through their tactics. If someone went after me with the same gusto PETA does, I’d be more inclined to dig in my heels and tell them to go to hell out of spite. They do seem to have toned down some of their tactics lately: in their published letters appear to try to use reason instead of the threat of paint throwing. But I still don’t think it’ll do any good in Britney’s case.

Here’s Britney performing “Circus” on “Good Morning America” on December 2nd. Images thanks to WENN.