STORY: :: Animal rights activists are fighting to save Rillette, a wild boar threatened by the French justice system
:: Chaource, France
:: Elodie Cappe, Horse breeder
"Actually, we found her right here. We put our trash containers here, a big plastic trash can, and she was right at the foot of the mailbox, in between a trash can, and she was this size, more or less."
:: The animal faces being put down if her owner doesn't send her to a specialized sanctuary
"For the French justice system, I took Rillette from the wild, you see, I took my boots one morning, went running in the forest, found a little wild boar and took it. No. That's what they think, but it's clearly not the truth at all. I showed you where we found her, and now the court must decide what happens to us. Administratively, today, it's either I can keep her and everything stops, or what's going to happen is that they're going to tell me, 'Listen, no, you're not keeping her and euthanasia or they're going to put her somewhere else"
:: January 15, 2025
"All I'm asking is for her to be left alone with me. Why take her away from me when she's very happy? She doesn't bother anyone. End of story."
A French court is set to rule in coming days on the sow's fate, who Cappe found as a tiny piglet outside the horse farm in central France in April 2023.
Now a big sow with a bristly brown coat, Rillette is part of Cappe's family, strolling around between the horses and dogs on the farm loves and enthusiastically kicks around a big plastic ball with her snout.
Authorities' attempts to take away the boar have generated considerable media interest in France. Last weekend, hundreds of people in Chaource marched behind a "Save Rillette" banner.
In a handwritten message posted on X, French animal rights campaigner and former movie star Brigitte Bardot wrote: "I ask that Rillette be saved...who are the monsters who want to euthanise her?"
Cappe said Rillette is sterilized and vaccinated, and poses no danger whatsoever to the public as she is confined to her horse breeding farm, which is in a rural area.