RED DEER — A pig that jumped a tall fence and escaped its deadly fate at a slaughterhouse more than three decades ago captured the imagination once again on Friday after an improved statue of the rebel was unveiled in the same central Alberta city where the ham was once on the lam.
Locals gathered in a park in Red Deer, Alta., to observe and take photos of the life-size, bronze statue of Francis the pig jumping over a hedge covered with daisies during an unveiling at the city’s Central Spray & Play park.
Francis escaped in July 1990 by jumping over the 1.2-metre-tall fence of a downtown Red Deer slaughterhouse. He also evaded three capture attempts over five months before a hunter eventually trapped him using a tranquilizer.
Locals were worried that Francis wouldn’t survive the winter weather and thought it was best to get a hunter involved.
Although the 108-kilogram pig successfully avoided its slaughter when a farm took him after his capture, Francis died three days later from a bladder infection caused by the tranquilizer.
“While it was on the lam, its mystery captured everyone’s imaginations,” said Colleen Sharpe, a spokeswoman for the City of Red Deer’s community development department, at the park on Friday.
“Everyone loves a rebel, right?”
Sharpe said schoolchildren would write letters about the life lessons that could be learned from the special pig that saved itself. And, in a time before social media, people would squeal with delight when word about the animal's latest sighting was published in the local newspaper.
The search for the pig also captured international attention with music bands, including one in Edmonton, writing and singing about “the freedom-loving hog of Red Deer, Alberta,” she said.
Sharpe said she recently learned that there’s a vegetarian food truck in Minneapolis named after the pig.
There’s also a brewery in Red Deer that serves a “Pesky Pig Pale Ale” to honour Francis, his mascot is displayed at parades, and shirts featuring Francis’s face are sold at a local museum.
“It's amazing that 35 years later, the story does still live on,” she said.
Sharpe said a statue built by the renowned Edmonton-based sculptor Danek Mozdzenski was erected in the city in 1998.
But in 2023, after someone found cuts near its feet as if a thief was preparing to steal it that night, it was removed and returned to Mozdzenski for upgrades, she said.
“Today was about bringing Francis back with a new, bigger, better, more fancily designed base in a new location too,” Sharpe said.
Mozdzenski said he was feeling happy and “having a hoot” on Friday during the unveiling.
Mozdzenski said Francis’s statue shows the pig in the actual size and shape that he would have been in after roaming in the wild for months - lean and smaller than the average male pig of his age that’s ready for slaughter.
For the new statue, he said, he built a hedge and daisies below Francis’s feet so he has a stronger foundation.
“Francis was an animal that took a great deal of initiative that we attribute mostly to humans,” said the artist, who is behind several bronze sculptures across Canada, including one of Winston Churchill in Calgary and of Lester Pearson in Ottawa.
“Francis plunged into something that made all the difference.
“He stuck his neck out against all odds and made it. Everybody finds value in his story. We need his anecdote in today’s times.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2025.
Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press
