Hog hostage drama set to endThe lesson of this story is never feed a pig that shows up at your place. If Ms Hayes wasn't a vegetarian, she could have threatened 'Bruce' to put him on a spit.
Posted Wed Sep 24, 2008 7:31am AEST
Updated Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:23am AEST
Bruce the pig will be taken to a piggery. (Emma Sykes)
* Video: Caroline Hayes describes the ordeal (ABC News)
An 80 kilogram pig that has outstayed its welcome on the New South Wales north coast is expected to be captured and sent to a piggery today.
The bald pig, nicknamed 'Bruce', has upset the neighbourhood with its incessant demands to be fed.
Caroline Hayes, 63, says she has been unable to leave her Uki house to use the farm's outdoor toilet at times because the pig is aggressive towards her.
Ms Hayes says the animal recently bit her on the leg when she tried to go to the toilet and pushed her into her bedroom, where she fell over.
"I picked up a broom and poked him out with it and he snapped it in half with his mouth," she said yesterday.
Rangers from Murwillumbah Council tried to catch the animal on Monday but had taken a cage that was too small.
Yesterday, a pest animal ranger from the Tweed Lismore Rural Lands Protection Board, Len Hing, visited the pig.
Mr Hing says while the creature is friendly, its large size makes it difficult to control when it is hungry.
"I wouldn't like to see the pig go as a pet anywhere because he could become a potentially dangerous animal," he said.
He says the pig will be removed this morning and relocated to a piggery.
"The pig isn't endangering anyone. He's nice and quiet," he said.
"I'd advise people not to go into the area where he is so that we can take the pig out of the area on a nice, quiet basis."
Ms Hayes had claimed the pig was as big as a shetland pony when she called the ABC yesterday morning.
She said the animal had come from a home two kilometres away but its owners could not handle it and let it loose in the rainforest.
The woman said she and her neighbours began feeding the pig when it showed up at their homes 11 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 said the pig became aggressive when it wanted more food.
"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.
Ms Hayes, a self-described animal lover and vegetarian, said she had not stopped crying since the mayhem began.
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I was making a curry for dinner and Emily was going to drop in after her Bahasa language class, so she stayed for dinner. It makes up for tomorrow as she is going out to a birthday dinner instead.
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