/ 24 September 2008

Monster pig traps Aussie woman in home

A pig the size of a Shetland pony trapped an Australian woman in her village home, the national broadcaster reported on Tuesday.

A pig the size of a Shetland pony trapped an Australian woman in her village home, the national broadcaster reported on Tuesday.

Caroline Hayes (63) has tried leave her house in Uki in northern New South Wales to use the outdoor toilet but says the animal has bitten her and shoved her back inside.

“It’s a beautiful male pig but he’s just so big and so pushy,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Rangers from the local Murwillumbah Council tried to rescue her but could not capture the huge animal.

“The rangers came out to my house … with a dog cage and this pig is that big, it’s like trying to put an elephant in a dog cage,” she 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.”

Hayes said she and her neighbours began feeding the pig, whom they named Bruce, when it showed up at their homes 10 days ago after its owners could not handle it and let it loose in the rainforest.

But it became aggressive, demanding more food and 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 four o’clock in the morning, actually head-butting my door,” she said.

The rangers were due to try to capture the pig again on Tuesday, ABC said. — AFP