Before he died last week, French film icon Alain Delon once said he wanted his beloved sheepdog Loubo buried with him. To the relief of animal lovers around France, Loubo was allowed to live.
Delon, an internationally acclaimed and prolific actor and producer, died on Sunday last week, aged 88.
He was buried on Saturday in a private funeral attended by his children, relatives and close friends as fans mourned outside the gates of his country estate in Douchy, south of Paris, where he was laid to rest near his beloved dogs.
Photo: AP
He was quoted in a 2018 interview with Paris Match as saying he wanted Loubo, a Belgian Malinois he adopted in 2014, buried with him.
“I’ve had 50 dogs in my life, but I have a particular relationship with this one,” he told the magazine. ”If I die before him, I’ll ask the veterinarian for us to leave together... I’d prefer that to knowing that he would let himself die on my tomb amid so much suffering.”
After Delon’s death, animal rights activists raised the alarm about Loubo’s fate.
An official with the Brigitte Bardot Foundation — a prominent animal rights group founded by the famed French film star, who was close with Delon — said he contacted Delon’s family after foundation members expressed concern, while the foundation confirmed on X that the dog would live.
“The family of Alain Delon have confirmed to us that they will take care of him. Loubo will of course not be euthanized,” the foundation wrote in French.
French TV presenter Stephane Bern said Delon’s wish to be buried with his dogs was very him, comparing him to Frederick the Great of Prussia who did the same.
It was a gesture “of majesty and panache, very Delon, worthy of a Leopard who had become a misanthrope,” Bern said in a reference to Delon’s film The Leopard.
France’s Society for the Protection of Animals welcomed the family’s decision.
“Our phone lines were saturated” with calls by people worried about the dog, association president Guillaume Sanchez said.
Loubo “will probably be very sad to have lost the affection of Mr Delon,” but “we are totally against the idea that anyone euthanizes an animal for this reason, Delon or no Delon... Organizations that work to protect animals want society to develop awareness that an animal is an individual, separate being,” Sanchez said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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