The late French actor Alain Delon's wish to have his pet dog euthanized and buried with him has been rejected by his children following an outcry from animal rights activists, the Guardian reports.
The actor, who died aged 88 on Sunday, had said he wanted the animal, a 10-year-old Belgian Malinois named Loubo, to be "put to sleep" and placed in his grave at the cemetery of his home in the village of Duchy in Loiret.
On August 20, after activists expressed their dismay at the prospect of a healthy animal being euthanized and offered to find the dog a new home, it was announced that Lubo would live.
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation said Delon's daughter Anoushka confirmed the family would keep the dog.
“I just called Anoushka Delon and she told me that Lubo is part of the family and will be kept. The dog will not be euthanized," a spokesperson for the foundation said.
Earlier in the day, causing some confusion, the foundation had announced on social media that the dog would be spared before deleting the posts.
The SPA, the French equivalent of the RSPCA, was among several animal welfare organizations that expressed concern at Delon's stated wish for his companion, writing: “The life of an animal should not depend on that of a human. SPA is happy to take his dog and find him a new family."
In France, no law prohibits owners from euthanizing their animals, but it is up to each veterinarian to comply with their wishes.
Delon has created a cemetery chapel with the remains of at least 35 of his dogs in the wooded grounds of his home in La Brulerie, 85 miles southeast of Paris, which he bought in the early 1970s.
It was here, in a rare display of unity, that his three children - Anthony, 59, Anoushka, 33, and Alain-Fabien, 30 - announced that their father had died peacefully by their side. Lubo, adopted from a shelter by Delon in 2014, was included in the children's announcement of the actor's death.
"Alain-Fabien, Anushka, Anthony, as well as Loubaud, are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father," their joint statement read.
"He's my dog at the end of my life... I love him like my own child," Delon told Paris Match in 2018. "I've had 50 dogs in my life, but I have a special relationship with this one. He misses me when I'm gone."
He added: “If I die before him, I will ask the vet to help us be together. He will put him asleep forever in my arms. I'd rather do that than know he's going to die on my grave, suffering a lot." | BGNES
