Podcast: The winding tale of Red Deer’s rebel pig, Francis, 35 years later

Several years after his escapades, which for the uninitiated we’ll of course get to briefly, Francis truly became etched into the city’s cultural fabric with the commissioning of a statue downtown. That statue, erected in 1998, was eventually relocated near the downtown Central Spray and Play water park, and then a few years ago, it disappeared.

As the story goes, it might’ve been heisted away by thieves if left much longer. However, eagle-eyed municipal officials, who had noticed damage had been done to the base, removed it for safekeeping until it could be repaired and reinstalled.

And that’s what happened recently, with a new base designed by renowned Canadian sculptor Danek Mozdzenski, adorned by daisies for Francis to leap over in the figments of our imagination.

It then underwent a bronzing process.

Danek Mozdzenski, the sculptor for the original Francis statue in 1998, is also the one who took care of the new base. (Josh Hall/rdnewsNOW)

Mozdzenski also designed the original Francis in 1998, so it was only fitting he come back to the job.

“This pig jumped a 1.2 metre barricade somehow and bolted out the door, escaped into the wilds of Red Deer. He ran for about five months,” recalls Colleen Sharpe, community development coordinator at the City of Red Deer.

Sharpe was a high school student in Red Deer when it all went down.

“The public got so excited about the story of this pig that was really kind of a rebel, who was taking his fate into his own [proverbial] hands,” says Sharpe.

“It was such a strange thing to hear about this pig that was beating the odds. He ran free on the bike trails, near where the hospital and West Park are. They tried three times to capture him. And with all the public attention, there were school children writing letters, begging for Francis to be spared.”

Courtesy City of Red Deer Archives:

<< Wrote a young student named Anna: “Dear City of Red Deer, I have an idea to save Francis. You can have a search and reward. I think Francis is a terrific pig. I like pigs very much. I do not want him to die. No ham. No pork. No bacon.” >>

<< Another letter from young James read: “Dear City of Red Deer, I think Francis should be saved because he might escape again before winter and might die before you find him.” >>

<< “We are sorry to hear of the sad end of the indomitable spirit of Francis,” the Vancouver-based Mercy Volunteers for Animals Society wrote a few months later. >>

Alas, Francis’s life did end rather abruptly, but not before a rather interesting turn of events.

“I remember my friends and I would use the bike trails all the time. We were actually scared we might run into Francis. Pigs are actually large, it’s not like ‘Charlotte’s Web,’ so yeah, we’d get scared when we heard rustles in the bushes,” Sharpe recalls.

“There were constant reports of people sighting him. We got into November and the weather was turning really quite cold. So it was decided to hire someone with tracking and hunting experience. That person was finally able to corner Francis.”

Eyes locked, “That’ll do pig, that’ll do,” probably, or probably not — a tranquilizer dart is fired into Francis’s stomach.

The dart pierced the intrepid swine’s bowel.

He died of a septic infection three days later — and the rest, as they say, is history.

But for Lowell Hodgson, it’s not simply history, it’s a tale that spun off jokes and loving acts in celebration.

Hodgson, a longtime recreation, parks and culture manager at the City of Red Deer, working there from 1969 to 2000, likely owns Red Deer’s largest collection of pig memorabilia and merchandise, all in honour of Francis’s story.

Former longtime City of Red Deer manager of recreation, parks and culture, Lowell Hodgson, who is a big fan of Francis the Pig. (Josh Hall/rdnewsNOW)

“A lady named Sandra Ladwig who worked in the city’s clerks’ department, was quite in love with Francis when he escaped. She wanted him to be loved and protected. I made fun of it, being a former farm kid,” he said, adding he would joke about quote-unquote, ‘taking care of’ Francis himself.

It was all in good fun, of course.

“Francis was finally caught, didn’t survive, and that should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t. That year at Christmas, I found a box on my doorstep, and in that box was ham and bacon, and it was ‘from’ Francis the Pig.’ Everybody had a good laugh, but I knew very well Sandra had sent it,” says Hodgson.

“She never acknowledged it was her who sent it. But for about 30 years every Christmas Eve, there was a box, a gift from Francis, and always something to do with a pig. I have every kind of pig you can imagine — soft, cuddly ones, some which roll over, some you put money in which play a little song, flower pots, all very cute.”

When Sandra Ladwig passed away in 2023, the boxes surely would’ve stopped.

But they’ve persisted in their deliverance to Hodgson, who gave the eulogy at Ladwig’s service, and there he shared this same story.

“Francis was in Waskasoo Park, and I was responsible for that area,” says Hodgson, who does lament the oinker’s premature death, despite his jests to the contrary.

“We hired a bounty hunter who was going to tranquilize him and he was going to be adopted at a farm, because by then, everybody in Red Deer wanted him to survive and it had become a national story.

“I think we should celebrate these silly little things that happen from time to time. It’s part of our history and the fun we can have as people. I appreciate the beautiful job they [the city] have done, it’s a beautiful sculpture and I encourage people to come see Francis.”

That national story Hodgson refers to has spawned satirical songs, as well as a plant-based burger joint in Minneapolis, Minnesota, not to mention local brewery Troubled Monk’s year-round brew they call the Pesky Pig Pale Ale — and of course Francis is an integral piece of Red Deer’s Ghost Statues heritage walking tour.

Meantime, letters from children and a trough of other Francis-centric material are saved permanently in the City of Red Deer Archives, which has long been a bastion of this community’s historical preservation.

Jillian Staniec, archives coordinator at the City of Red Deer Archives. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

rdnewsNOW visited the archives in downtown Red Deer — about a block away from Francis’s immortalization — for this story.

“We are here to preserve the past, but the past isn’t just somebody who came here decades ago. It’s also some of the stuff that’s happening right now, and the things that have changed, like Francis, who has his story in 1990, but it’s still a story today,” Jill Staniec, archives coordinator and longtime archives staffer, said.

“We are open to the public, so people are welcome to come in, Monday to Friday, 9-4, ask us questions, maybe it’s house history, or a genealogy question, a question about the school they attended or that they’re going to right now, and we can find the answer while they go through the records.”

The City of Red Deer Archives, which you can learn more about at Red

Deer.ca, are located at 4725 49 Street, just north of Rotary Recreation Park and the spray park.

Video courtesy City of Red Deer Archives (VC1145)

by Josh Hall | @Vancan19

Podcast: The winding tale of Red Deer’s rebel pig, Francis, 35 years later

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