She was found rummaging around the bins among rotting vegetables, and feeding off the scraps and waste at her adopted home.
But Rillette the wild boar has become something of a cause célèbre in her native France, garnering hundreds of thousands of fond followers around the world.
A threat by local authorities to put her down has led to a furious backlash, a protest ballad and a campaign taken up by none other than Brigitte Bardot, the actress and animal rights campaigner.
The campaign is set to culminate in a silent march against overzealous public health officials with her snout in their targets.
Discovered as an orphan, Rillette was taken in by a local horse breeder but officials say she is a disease risk and must be culled.
A petition to save Rillette has attracted more than 173,810 signatures since its launch in early December.
“What monsters are asking for her euthanasia? The word ‘human’ disgusts me,” Ms Bardot declared in a hand-written note published online.
“This little animal has the right to live, it’s even a duty, she’s innocent,” Euthanasia is a crime! We are governed by murderers!”
The campaign to save Rillette has been taken up by Brigitte Bardot, the actress and animal rights campaigner – Charly Hel/Prestige/Getty Images Europe
Local authorities say the detention of a non-domesticated animal is unlawful and cite the risk of disease and threat to public safety. But the plight of the sow has tugged at the public’s heartstrings, with growing calls to spare the animal.
“She is an integral part of the family ,” Élodie Cappé, the farmer who took her in, told the newspaper Le Figaro. “She is treated the same or even better than my dogs, even though I love them deeply.”
Ms Cappé discovered Rillette as a tiny piglet weighing about half a stone, rootling for food through the farm’s rubbish bins in April 2023. Animal sanctuaries and local parks refused to take the animal in.
“I called all the organizations. They passed the buck,” she told TV station France3. “We had to find her a place in a park, but no one wanted her. And now, she’s imprinted with us.”
The horse breeder built a 12,290 sq ft enclosure for the sow on her farm to comply with regulations, but local authorities have threatened to put down the animal if no other solution can be found.
Ms Cappé built a 12,290 sq ft enclosure for the sow on her farm to comply with regulations – Francois Nascimbeni/AFP
“This legislation is justified by the health risks that the keeping of such animals entails. Indeed, these species can carry many diseases,” reads a press release from the local prosecutor.
“There is also a high risk of these diseases spreading to farms or domestic animals. They also present risks in terms of public safety, as they are wild species that can thus be the cause of potentially tragic accidents.”
At the end of December, the public prosecutor had also ordered Ms Cappé to hand the animal over to a company that trains animals to appear on film and television but she refused.
“It’s shameful. Do you realize that they want to send her there for financial gain? It’s out of the question,” she told France3.
Ms Cappé risks three years imprisonment and a fine of €150,000 (£125,000).
The plight of Rillette, which is curiously named after a slow-cooked pork spread, has also inspired a song by Monsieur Seby, a YouTuber with 904,000 subscribers, who penned such lyrics as “I don’t want to go/I just want to live/” and “My name is Rillette/a tender animal/who did nothing wrong.”
Last November, the internet mourned the loss of P’nut the Squirrel, an Instagram-famous pet that had been seized by the New York State authorities and euthanised.
Owner Mark Longo shared videos of the squirrel eating and playing to his 500,000 followers on Instagram.
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