The inflatable pig from Pink Floyd's 'Animals' cover

The inflatable pig—named Algie by the band—was never meant to be a mere prop. It was a visual punchline for an album that skewered the greed and hypocrisy of the British class system. Emblazoned with “Pigs on the Wing” and tethered over Battersea Power Station, the pig was supposed to float obediently between the chimneys and hammer home the cover’s political message: capitalism inflates itself into a grotesque, airborne beast.

The shoot went wrong almost immediately. The marksman hired to pop the pig if it drifted was a no‑show, so when its anchors snapped, Algie soared to 18,000 feet and disrupted air traffic over Heathrow. Planes stopped taking off; the police received frantic calls about a UFO. The pig eventually landed in a field in Kent, where a farmer reportedly said he’d never seen such a strange animal. Pink Floyd had to pay £4