Florida's freedom pig becomes a local hero

08/24/2009

The beloved and bedeviled "Freedom pig" in Florida has evaded capture, tranquilizers and Tazering for five months and become a local hero. Credit: Karl Hagen, August Hagen, and Kurt Grabner

I love crafty, wise, sneaky, smart animals. Three stories crossed my desk, erm, computer screen, that I wanted to share just for fun. Who says an “old dog” can’t learn new tricks? Though working against their own instincts and learned behaviors from their parents, these wily wild animals learned some new tricks and some have achieved hero status. My favorite is the Freedom Pig.

A feral pig roaming free in The Cove region of Panama City, Florida has become a famed local resident – the kind which tall tales emerge for decades afterward.  The pig has evaded capture for the last five months, escaping from four tranquilizer darts and a Taser gun with nary a scratch not to mention evading traps meant to catch him.

He's brought the community together in the strangest sort of way. People now go pig spotting for cheap fun, but the local animal control authorities trying to capture it think it's more like ‘hogzilla.’ The hog has charged police and possibly a woman walking her dog near a local park. That hasn’t stopped locals in the mostly conservative region of the Florida panhandle from dubbing the “Cove pig” or the "Freedom pig" a libertarian, freedom-loving hero. He’s so beloved that he has his own Facebook fan page with over 900 members and t-shirts have been printed saying “I ♥ the Cove Pig" and a pig laying in a hammock drinking a pina colada that says, "Don’t Tase me Bro.”

The pig may have traveled via water from another side of town after a controlled burn got a little out of hand, explains Brian Jones, who started the pig's Facebook fan page with a group of friends. "The animal control have no intent on killing the pig, there is already a family with a wildlife preserve who has agreed to adopt it once its been captured."

The Cove has its own unique flavor. "It is very old, with lots of legends and mysterious stories... So it's only fitting that the sudden appearance of a pig be in The Cove," says Jones.  "We had no idea that it would get so much exposure,  but it definitely brought together our community and gave everyone a common interest."

Comments

[SteveN]

Yay! Go FreedomPig! :)

[Mickki Hayes]

Have been following the pig through our neighborhood in the Cove-it's been such an "UP" for our little community--kids and parents out walking, biking and on golf carts trying to get a glimpse of OUR pig--it's probably time for him to make his way through humane capture to the farm in Ebro--school started today and it's a sure sign that summer is over! Who knows---he may find the sow of his life up there on the farm!!!!!

[Catherine Zehner]

The Humane Society of Bay County has a 90-acre woodland home waiting for Freedom Pig. Support the HSBC by going to www.adoptme.org and making a donation today.

[nina]

I can't eat bacon any more.

[Kiki]

Don't tase me bro! He's so cute and I love our neighborhood!

[Melissa]

That pig sure does get around!