Pigs Run Amok

Does this sound familiar?

A pig has turned on a woman who tried to look after it, effectively holding her hostage on a property in northern New South Wales.

Sixty-three-year old Caroline Hayes says she has been unable to leave her Uki house to use the farm's outdoor toilet at times because the white pig is aggressive towards her.

Ms Hayes says the animal came from a home two kilometres away, but its owners could not handle it and let it loose in the rain forest.

She says she and her neighbours began feeding the pig, who they named 'Bruce', after it first showed up at their homes 10 days ago.

"When I found it, it had 15 ticks in its eyes which I actually took out," she said.

"One of its eyes it couldn't see out of, so I put cream in it and I fixed its back up, but apparently it's actually claimed my land and claimed my place."

Ms Hayes says the pig became aggressive when it wanted more food, recently biting her on the leg when she tried to go to the toilet.

"It started getting very pushy, started pushing me around, so I started to get a bit frightened, until the stage that it started knocking on my door at 4 o'clock in the morning, actually head-butting my door," she said.

She says she locked herself into her house yesterday afternoon and was too afraid to get out until late this morning.

"This morning, I wanted to go to my toilet, which is outside. I opened up the door and the pig pushed me that hard, it pushed me back into my room, where I fell over," she said.

"I picked up a broom and poked him out with it and he snapped it in half with his
mouth."

Two words of advice for Ms. Hayes that would solve all her problems: Barbecue sauce.

"The rangers came out to my house yesterday with a dog cage and this pig is that big, it's like trying to put an elephant in a dog cage," Ms Hayes said.

"They tried for a little while and they couldn't do it. They got him halfway in and he just backed off and went back to my dam, where he was having a lovely time in the water."

She says Bruce is also causing mayhem in her yard.

"He's pulled a big king-size mattress out of my garage and he's ripped it up all around the yard," she said.

"And then he's come up again and I've got a mat outside my door, which he's actually rolled up.

"[He] put his nose underneath it and actually rolled it up into a perfect roll."

Rangers will try to capture the pig today but Ms Hayes says she does not want to know what they plan to do with it.

"I haven't stopped crying because I'm a major animal lover and a vegetarian," she said.

Pork - it's the other white meat.