Maurice, a rescued wild boar injured in 2014 by a couple from Montaignac-sur-Doustre (Corrèze) and threatened with administrative euthanasia for two years, was finally authorized by the courts to stay with his foster family.
Tuesday, before the correctional court of Tulle, the owner of the animal, William Vayne, appeared for “taking without authorization from the natural environment of live animals whose hunting is authorized” and “unauthorized possession of animal of non-domestic species.
Owner found guilty of unauthorized detention, but absolved of sentence
He was found guilty of having kept the mammal at home, now domesticated, but exempted from punishment because of the regularization of the animal, carried out with the prefecture a few months ago. Maurice, a male wild boar who now lives in a protected enclosure in the company of goats, chickens and geese, will therefore not be removed from his guests.
The case began in March 2019 after an anonymous denunciation to the services of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), following which William Vayne asked the prefecture for authorization to detain the animal. It had been refused to him “because of the illegal origin of the wild boar”.
“I tried to get him to leave but he always came back, so we kept him”
“We treated him, I tried to get him to leave afterwards but he always came back. So we kept it, ”explained to the audience the thirty-year-old who had also tried in vain to find an authorized refuge. “I hope that Maurice will stay at home to continue living happy days,” he added at the helm.
“We cannot say that it is a protected and huntable species at the same time, which poses a first problem for the offense of detention; the sample is assimilated to a capture, but the animal has arrived at their home, ”said the defendant’s lawyer, Patrice Grillon.
The couple had launched an online petition, “Save Maurice”, which collected more than 218,000 signatures, as well as a kitty to contribute to legal costs. Through her Foundation, Brigitte Bardot was moved by the fate of the animal with the prefecture.