A hashtag #SauvezRillette which has made the rounds on the networks, several petitions including one with more than 175,000 signatories, and a support march planned for this Saturday in Chaource… In a few weeks, the fate of a wild boar has almost become a national issue. Elodie Cappé really didn’t expect it. “Yes, I received messages telling me that I just had to kill my pig, but they are in the minority,” explains its owner, a horse breeder based “in the middle of the forest” in Aube. . “I have had a lot of testimonies and support. It proves that people were touched by my story. »
This story is that of her fight to keep her sow at home – since she is a female – collected on April 1, 2023. “I found her next to my trash containers. It was a boar that must have been two to three weeks old. » Since then, the one she nicknamed Rillette – “because it became Riri but we never had the idea of eating her” – has grown up a lot. The animal today weighs “around a hundred kilos” and has found its place within the farm.
“We installed an enclosure for him which is approximately 1,000 m² with a box, a sillage (a swamp) and fences all around with an electric fence… It’s even better than what the standards recommend,” explains this woman. 36 years old from Haute-Marne. Who rarely leaves his funny pet.
“At first, my husband and I didn’t want to get too attached to her. It was even offered to parks but no one wanted it, because wild boars are considered harmful. Then we kept it and we have a bond now. She listens to me as much as my dogs. I can ask her to sit, lie down… She follows me everywhere! »
The prefecture opposes and proposes three solutions
So much so that Elodie Cappé thought that Rillette could settle there permanently. She “wanted to do things according to the rules”, thinking of relying on the decree of October 8, 2018 which authorizes the detention of a wild boar in a private home… But, despite its repeated requests, the Aube prefecture opposes it.
“Only animals with a known and legal origin can claim authorization to keep or to submit applications for a certificate of capacity and authorization to open an establishment. Thus, a wild boar taken directly from the wild has no legal origin and cannot dispose of it,” justified the Troyes prosecutor in a press release on December 17.
Three solutions were gradually proposed to the breeder for her sow. “Either release it into the wild, but it doesn’t know how to feed itself so it wouldn’t survive; either euthanize him, which I cannot imagine; or entrust it to a film trainer who will use it for profit. But I just want to keep her at home! »
Supported by a lawyer who contacted her, Auboise therefore intends to make her cause heard. “This Monday, January 13 at 10:30 a.m. in Châlons-en-Champagne, we have an interim suspension hearing,” announces his counsel, Maître Karl Burger. “We will seek to obtain an injunction from the judge so that my client obtains the regularization of Rillette’s situation. »
He thus intends to prove that the sow was not obtained in an “illicit manner”, contrary to what the prefecture claims. “She came to take refuge and Madame Cappé took care of her, sterilized her, vaccinated her, built her an enclosure… It is not forbidden to keep a wild boar on your property. Take a five-minute stroll on the Internet and you will see that many people have them in France. »
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It’s not the breeder who will say the opposite. Since the start of the case, she has received “numerous calls from owners”. “Some have one or more, sometimes even live in pavilions or have small plots of land… That’s why I don’t see why I shouldn’t have the right to keep Rillette? If I listened to the prefecture, it would have been easier to scold her when I welcomed her. But I’m not like that. »
Even if it means risking a criminal sanction, Elodie Cappé continues the fight. On Saturday, she will parade in the neighboring town of Chaource. “There will be people from all over France. People even booked rooms to be there! “. With Rillette.
