PARIS — Before he died this week, French film icon Alain Delon once suggested he wanted his beloved sheepdog Loubo buried with him. To the relief of animal lovers around France, Loubo will be allowed to survive. Delon, an internationally acclaimed and prolific actor and producer, died Sunday, aged 88, and will be buried on Saturday at his family home in Douchy, south of Paris.
FILE - French actor Alain Delon and model Bianca di Sofia arrive for the screening of the film "Chacun Son Cinema" ("To Each His Own Cinema"), at the 60th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Sunday, May 20, 2007. Alain Delon, the internationally acclaimed French actor who embodied both the bad guy and the policeman and made hearts throb around the world, has died at age 88, French media reported. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) 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 and concerned citizens raised alarm about Loubo's fate. France's Society for Protection of Animals offered to find the dog a new home. An official with the Brigitte Bardot Foundation — a prominent animal righ.