Alain Delon’s dog gets to live despite late French film star’s wishes

FILE- In this May 19, 2019 file photo, French actor Alain Delon poses for photographers at the photo call for his honorary Palme D’Or award at the 72nd international film festival, Cannes, southern France. 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. (Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP, File)

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.

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 know that he would let himself die on my tomb amid so much suffering.’’

After Delon’s death, animal rights activists and concerned citizens 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.

“They said the question was not even raised, and they would let the dog live. They said he has a home in Douchy, and will live there,’’ the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be publicly named according the Foundation’s communications policies.

The official said Delon was a longtime “friend of the foundation’’ and helped raise money for its causes.

Delon’s family didn’t publicly comment about the dog.

Alain Delon’s son Anthony with Loubo. Image from Anthony Delon’s Instagram

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, SPA President Guillaume Sanchez told the Associated Press.

Loubo “will probably be very sad to have lost the affection of Mr. Delon,’’ Sanchez said. 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.’’

One of France’s most memorable leading men and best-known film stars, Delon was also a producer and appeared in plays, and in later years, in television movies.