The case of the missing pig must be closed by June 6.
A bronze statue immortalizing Francis, the plucky porker who warmed hearts across the continent in 1990 with his daring escape from a Red Deer slaughterhouse, has gone missing from what was supposed to be its permanent home.
Somehow, the little swine managed to give city crews the slip while it was being moved to make way for construction at its site amongst the shrubbery in a parking lot on Little Gaetz Avenue.
While its new home is being prepared, staff in the City of Red Deer’s Culture Department are asking aspiring detectives aged three to 11 to enter the Where’s Francis contest and save his bacon.
Creative prize packages will be awarded to child detectives who come up with the best ideas for where Francis is hiding.
Children are invited to submit drawings of the ham on the lam in the location where they believe he could be found so he can be recaptured and moved to his new home, to be revealed on June 6.
Francis the Pig is one of 10 bronzes commissioned for the City of Red Deer’s Ghosts collection.
A new Ghosts tour and two new heritage walking tours will be announced on the day that his new home is revealed.
Contest entries can be downloaded at www.reddeer.ca/culture or picked up at the Culture Services Centre, 3827 39th St.