Pig on the loose near Fort St. John travelled nearly 50 km before returning to farm

A pig that was being raised for meat but managed to make a break for it last Wednesday has returned to the farm after travelling nearly 50 kilometres.

The large, black uncut boar escaped from a farm near Two Rivers in northern B.C. and was spotted by locals throughout the community of Baldonnel, southeast of Fort St. John over a period of eight days.

Stanley Troyer, who knows the owner of the pig, and was helping to track him down, said the pig returned to the property on his own.

Troyer, owner of Stan's Custom Meats, estimates the approximately 430 pound pig travelled over 50 kilometres round trip.

In the end, however, the porcine runaway was not able to outrun his fate and has since been butchered.

Half his meat is being shared by the people who helped track him and the other half is being donated to the Salvation Army. 

Hog wild

Troyer had previously been concerned about finding the pig because of some of the damage he could have caused.

"The concern with pigs getting out and getting away, obviously, they can be quite destructive depending on what the circumstances are," Troyer told Daybreak North's Andrew Kurjata earlier this week.

Last spring, the University of Saskatchewan published a study that found wild pigs are quickly spreading across Canada and causing lots of trouble with crops and disease transmission.

The survey described it as an "ecological disaster."

Researchers also found that the pigs are able to survive in the winter by burrowing in the snow and making 'pigloos' to nestle up in.

"They're definitely a tough animal and quite hardy," said Troyer.

The Search

For eight days Troyer and other community members tracked the pig across numerous properties, following his tracks.

At times, they had to get permission from property owners when the pig ventured onto private land.

At one point last Sunday, they lost tabs on him.

"We tracked him around a whole section, basically, where he was following the edge of the brushline on the field and then toward the evening ... just before dark ... the wind picked up [and] started drifting in the tracks so we couldn't follow it anymore," said Troyer.

What surprised the meat shop owner the most, who has experience with farm animals, was how fast the pig had travelled during this ordeal.

Earlier in the week, he said, the pig was "just trucking" and never tired out the way all of them expected him to.