a new wild boar threatened with euthanasia touches Brigitte Bardot and thousands of French people

Will Rillette be able to join Toto at the Charleville-Mézières animal park to spend happy days, or even stay with the woman who took care of her for more than a year? This female wild boar, a little over a year old, has aroused keen interest in recent days. Found on April 1, 2023 in the trash of Élodie Cappé, an equine breeder based on a property of around ten hectares a few kilometers from Chaource in Aube, the sow is threatened with euthanasia. However, the latter is entirely tame and would be incapable of surviving alone in the wild. To avoid a fatal fate, Élodie Cappé is doing everything in her power and spreading her story on social networks and in the media.

Everywhere, the breeder tells how she discovered Rillette, at the time a two or three kilo boar, searching in her trash. Visibly injured and without a mother, probably killed during a hunt, the young sow was taken in by Élodie Cappé and her companion in their large isolated property. The young Auboise then explains that she took care of it by trying “obviously not to get attached”its primary objective being to place it in a specialized park. However, at that time, the centers which accommodate wild animals were already “overloaded with wild boars”details Rillette’s mistress on a daily basis The Ardennes . The other centers also refused to welcome him, “considering the wild boar a pest” but above all because this one “is too impregnated with man”she adds.

“She is an integral part of the family”

The breeder then ensured that the sow was vaccinated and sterilized. Due to its proximity to humans and its breeding in the company of dogs, it is completely harmless. “She is an integral part of the family”says Élodie Cappé everywhere, “she is treated the same or better than my dogs, even though I love them deeply”. Faced with this unexpected domestication, the breeder began administrative procedures to declare the possession of a non-domestic animal, without a favorable response. In principle, it is forbidden to have a wild animal in your home. However, according to the decree of October 8, 2018, this is possible for wild boars provided that you make a declaration to the department prefecture in advance. But his appeal to the prefecture was also refused.

During the month of October, the National Biodiversity Office (OFB) asked it to “get rid of the animal”threatening to “come back and get him or euthanize him on site”she tells Parisian . “Today we started with criminal matters. For me it will mean police custody and above all a prison sentence, I risk a fine of up to 15,000 euros.”she assures at the microphone of BFMTV, while an investigation was opened at the request of the OFB.

“The administration wants to shoot the wild boar”

At the microphone of Julien Courbet in the show “It can happen to you”the exhausted young woman says she no longer sleeps at night for fear that the animal will be slaughtered. “It’s driving me crazy!”the host got carried away. “You adopted her, you gave her milk, you trained her, now she sits when we tell her to sit, she plays with the dogs, she is on private, fenced property”listed the presenter. “Everything is fine, well no! The administration wants to shoot the wild boar”he gets angry.

Also read
The new life of “Toto”, the tame wild boar who narrowly avoided euthanasia

He then urged Boris Ravignon, mayor of Charleville-Mézières, to welcome the sow into the animal park of the Ardennes town, as he had done for Toto this summer. The latter said to himself “naturally ready to help”but recalled that Élodie Cappé would surely prefer to keep the animal. The councilor then attacked the law in a post on X, and encouraged Parliament to take it up.

“They will never find her”

After the breeder’s appearance on Julien Courbet’s show on RTL, the Aube prefecture published a press release recalling that the law provides that “only wild boars from breeding can be kept”. However, many media, like BFMTV and Parisian also took up the matter, and even traveled there to meet Rillette. At the microphone of Parisian, the young woman also assured that if the OFB returns to follow up on Rillette’s threats of capture or euthanasia, she will intervene so that they cannot approach her. “Or if I know they’re setting up a date, I’ll take my truck, put her in it and go hide her with friends. I say it openly. They will never find her again.”.

Élodie Cappé also explains the interest that Rillette has generated on social networks. Proudly, she shows a screenshot of her phone which immortalized X trends (formerly Twitter). #SaveRillette was the third most followed trend in France, “she passed in front of the Nobel Prize anyway”proudly exclaims the breeder. A petition launched on December 1 even approaches 90,000 signatures. To top it off for the young sow, Brigitte Bardot also showed her support in a publication on X yesterday. “What are the monsters who demand his euthanasia?”she wrote. “The word “human” disgusts me.”.

Vanina Paoli-Gagin, senator from Aube, also took up the matter, multiplying letters and calls to administrations and political bodies, to ensure that the romance between the young woman and her boar does not end. Élodie Cappé, however, reminded many times and in each interview that it is not necessary “stop on the road to take wild boars. Our situation is exceptional. I want these animals to remain in nature, in their innate and primary habitat”.