Huge pig sent to stud after holding woman hostage

CANBERRA (Reuters) - A pony-size pig who held an Australian woman hostage for 10 days inside her home will be removed on Wednesday to a piggery, where his bacon will be saved by a stint on stud duties, rangers said.

The 80 kg (176 pound) pig, nicknamed Bruce, kept self-confessed animal lover Caroline Hayes, 63, in her farmhouse near Uki, in northern New South Wales State, with aggressive demands to be fed, even headbutting her bedroom door at night.

"I picked up a broom and poked him out with it and he snapped it in half with his mouth," Hayes told Australian media.

She said the pushy pig was as big as a "Shetland pony" and wandered onto her property 11 days ago after being let loose in surrounding rainforest by neighbors.

"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," Hayes said.

Len Hing, a pest animal ranger from the local Tweed Lismore Rural Lands Protection Board, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio that Bruce was friendly, but his large size made him a handful when he was hungry.

"I wouldn't like to see the pig go as a pet anywhere because he could become a potentially dangerous animal," he said.

Rangers were to remove the pig on Wednesday and take him to a piggery where he was to be placed on stud duty, Hing said.

(Reporting by Rob Taylor, editing by Miral Fahmy)