Lucien Libert
CHAOURCE, France (Reuters) – Animal rights activists in France are fighting to save a wild boar that was adopted as a piglet by a horse breeder but is now at risk of being suffocated if its owner does not send it to a specialist sanctuary.
A French court is due to rule in the coming days on the fate of “Rillette”, who was found as a tiny piglet outside Elodie Cappe’s horse farm in Chaource, central France, in April 2023.
Now a large sow with bristling brown hair, Rillette walks among the horses and dogs on the farm and enthusiastically kicks a large plastic ball with her snout.
“I don’t know how she sees me. Maybe I’m her mother, maybe her best friend or just her protector, but as you can see there’s a bond of love between us,” Cappe said as she hugged Rillette in the hay and kissed her on the nose.
Cappe says Rillette is no longer a wild animal and two attempts to free her failed as the boar immediately ran back to its owners.
“Rillette has nothing to do with her own kind. If we let her out into the woods, she’ll sit in the middle of the road and run to the first human she sees,” she said.
Attempts by the authorities to remove the boar for health and safety reasons have sparked a storm of protest in France.
Last weekend, hundreds of people in the area marched behind “Free Rillette” banners, while animal rights activist and film icon Brigitte Bardot posted on X: “I demand that Rillette be saved… who are the monsters who want to euthanize her?”.
Rillette’s owner says she will fight to save her. “It will all depend on the judge’s decision, but it could come down to euthanasia, and I will not allow that,” said Cappe, who faces three years in prison for contempt.
Cappe said Rillette – jokingly named after a regional dish of sliced pork – has been spayed and vaccinated and does not pose a danger to the public because she is confined to a farm.
“Why would they take her away, when she is happy here and no one is bothering her?” she asked.
