Adopted wild boar can stay with her owner, French court rules

By Lucien Libert

CHAOURCE, France (Reuters) -A wild boar adopted by a French horse breeder can remain with her owner, a court ruled on Thursday, after threats by authorities to remove and even euthanise her triggered a storm of protest.

Found as a tiny piglet near garbage bins outside the horse farm of Elodie Cappe in Chaource, central France, in April 2023, "Rillette" has now grown into a large sow with a bristly brown coat who runs around between the horses and dogs on the farm and loves to cuddle with her owners.

After early attempts to release the boar back into the wild failed, Cappe had Rillette sterilised and vaccinated, provided her with an enclosure and put in several requests with the regional prefecture for authorisation to keep a non-domesticated animal.

The requests were all rejected while local authorities threatened to confiscate or euthanise the animal and Cappe faced potential prison time and a fine of up to 150,000 euros ($154,000) for "capturing or detaining wild animals".

The case riled up animal rights campaigners, made headlines and sparked a petition and a local demonstration. Even movie icon Brigitte Bardot pleaded to let Rillette stay on the farm.

In a ruling published on Thursday, the Chalons-en-Champagne administrative tribunal ordered the prefecture to reconsider the application to keep the animal and ordered the state to pay 1,500 euros in damages to the hog's owner.

"This is a great victory, the court really wiped out the prefecture's arguments. The fact that we had the media behind us really made a difference," Cappe said, adding that she will donate the damages paid to a charity.

Cappe said Rillette - jokingly named after a regional dish of shredded pork - was unfazed by the news.

"She is just playing, she does not care. She belongs with us," she said.

($1 = 0.9739 euros)

(Reporting by Lucien Libert, writing by Geert De Clercq, editing by Ros Russell)