Sydney - A woman was being held hostage on an east coast Australian farm by a wild pig she took in 10 days ago and treated for an eye infection, news reports said Tuesday.

"One of its eyes it couldn't see out of, so I put cream in it and I fixed it back up, but apparently, it's actually claimed my land and claimed my place," Caroline Hayes, 63, told the national broadcaster ABC.

"It's a beautiful male pig, but he's just so big and so pushy," she said. "This morning, I wanted to go to my toilet, which is outside. I opened the door and the pig pushed me that hard - it pushed me back into my room, where I fell over."

She has named the pig Bruce and described him as being "the size of a Shetland pony."

Hayes said rangers from nearby Murwillumbah had come but failed to capture Bruce because he was too big to go in the cage they brought.

"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 said.

Hayes said she was at her wit's end because she was up half the night with Bruce's banging around and laying siege to her house.

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

Murwillumbah Council has promised to come out for another try at capturing Bruce, but Hayes said she didn't want to witness the chase or its aftermath.

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