Reprieve for wild boar woman found and looks after at French home

A 100 kg wild boar that is being kept as a pet by a woman in France has been temporarily saved from being seized and euthanised by authorities, with a month-long legal reprieve.

Élodie Cappé, who lives in Aube (Grand Est), has been looking after the wild boar since it appeared to ‘take refuge’ on her property in 2023.

However, Ms Cappé had been refused the right to be named the animal’s “keeper” by the departmental prefect, which cited a breach in health and safety laws and the rules on keeping wild animals as pets. 

The case was then considered by the administrative court in Châlons-en-Champagne (Marne, Grand Est).

Reprieve for Rillette

On January 16, the court decided that Ms Cappé could continue to keep the animal - who is called ‘Rillette’ - on her property, pending a re-examination of the case by the Aube prefect within a month.

In a press release on the decision, the court stated that the wild boar was “not a prisoner” in the home, and said that “the rules applicable to the keeping of non-domestic animals do not at any time require that they be born and bred in captivity”.

The court also said that as a result of this, the prefect still has the authorisation – if it wishes – to allow Ms Cappé to keep the boar as a pet, even though the intentional capture of live boar in the wild (with the intention, for example, to keep the animal as a pet) is illegal, and carries a potential year long prison sentence.

Ms Cappé did not intentionally capture the boar; she only began looking after it after the animal came into her property of its own accord, she has said.

The court ruled that because Ms Cappé’s situation could still be “approved” legally, it would suspend the refusal to declare her as the animal’s “keeper”, and asked the Aube prefect to re-evaluate her application within one month.

Read also: Why are there more boar in France in 2024 - and will it continue?
Read more: What to do if you cross a boar while out walking in France? 

Widespread support

Rillette has received widespread support, including a protest march that attracted 500 people in Chaource (Aube), and a supportive X post (Twitter) from animal activist and former actress Brigitte Bardot in December 2024.

The case is similar to one seen in France in March 2022, when ambulance driver Véronique Consolo from Lot-et-Gar­onne was also embroiled in a court case after she refused to allow agents from the Office français de la biodiv­ersité (OFB) agents to take the boar (named Woody) away from her.

Read also: French woman says she was ‘treated like criminal’ after saving a boar 

She had rescued the boar as a piglet from a pack of hounds, and nurtured it back to health. 

She said she had tried several times to free Woody back to the countryside – it is not known if he had a mother nearby – but he had grown used to being fed from a bottle, was frightened by sounds in the wild, had become attached to her, and would cuddle up with her like a pet dog or cat.

Her lawyer added that Woody “would probably be shot by a hunter if freed into the wild”.

That case also received support from the Fondation Bardot, when activist Sabine Landais (also of animal rights group Vida), said: “Boar are very sensitive animals that get attached to humans quickly.”