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 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 rights group founded by a

famed French film star who was close with Delon — said “lots and lots” of the foundation’s members reached out to express concern.

The official contacted Delon’s family, and “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 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.

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.