Cows killed another poor dog walker

[Pippetypoppity]

I’ve just seen on the BBC news that a lady has been killed in a field by cows. She was walking her chihuahua. This is absolutely tragic. She possibly ran with dog and was chased. That would be my guess as the same happened to me on our farm when I was very young. Your instinct is to save your dog and run. I remember I had a sheep dog puppy in my arms and I’d gone into the field to play. I was about 6 I think. The cows noticed the puppy from quite a distance away and the whole herd started moving in. Luckily I was close enough to the gate to get out, but it was terrifying. I remember my father on the yard yelling ‘Drop the puppy’ at the top of his lungs. I didn’t but I’d have been a gonner if I was another 50 yards in. I just want to tell everyone what my father said to me that day. It’s stuck in my mind ever since and it’s important anyone who dog walks in the country knows it too

1. If you see cows with calves leave the field by the nearest exit immediately. Cows often charge to protect their young
2. If you see cows without calves and they start moving quickly towards you they are being inquisitive. If you have a dog with you the cows will want to know if it is a threat. They see dogs instinctively as predators. If you cannot get to a gate and they are approaching- startle them by shouting jumping, waving your arms and making yourself appear as loud, big and threatening as possible. This will frighten them and make them stop or bypass you.
3. If they persevere it will be because they want to force your dog out of the field. Let the dog go! This is critical. Your dog can run faster than cows and much much faster than you. The cows will then focus on the dog and you can get away.
4. Never ever pick up the dog if cows are refusing to back off. This is the hardest thing in the world to do as all your instincts will compel you to try and protect it. It stands a better chance running and dodging them however than it does in your arms. You will then avoid becoming a target yourself and being trampled.
5. When cows move quickly in a large group the ones at the front get pushed by the ones at the back even if they themselves try to slow down. They will not be trying to mow you down but the sheer force from behind might mean they do. For this reason if cows approach in a group and your initial efforts to threaten and scare them failed, make that momentum go in a different direction ie after your dog.

I am so so dreadfully sorry to hear that this has happened again. The lady in question was inevitably a devoted extremely responsible and loving pet owner. She must have been to have been giving her chihuahua a country walk. I expect for this very reason she picked her dog up when she saw the cows getting near. Poor poor lady.

Yeah, I'm a vegetarian so I'm good 😆

Nothing against cows per se- oh, except that animal agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, and if we don't dial down the Saturday night steaks we're all fucked.

I'm in Ireland @MichaelAndEagle - we don't have a right to roam.

Of course they don't want dog walkers on their land that they paid for. They are sick to the back teeth of the dogs allowed to run loose and worry sheep, the dog shit, the litter, and the tendency to stray from marked paths. It's ridiculous that they are expected to maintain pathways for the use of others. Yes, it is your "right" to use public footpaths. Doesn't mean they have to like it.

I had no idea people could walk through farmland in the UK!

I'm in Canada and farms are private property. There are no public foot paths through them.

I should read what the Health and Safety executive has to say about it love. It is very much the responsibility of the farmers.

There is nothing as disrespectful, stupid, careless, thoughtless and entitled as the general public at large.
I have had a day off and been for a walk on the seafront. In the space of about half a mile this morning I counted 37 dog shits left on the prom., there was an awful amount of fresh litter- chip containers, coffee cups, several single plastic gloves (?) , plastic wrapping and bags, sweet wrappings, plastic bottles and broken glass, vapes rubbish.

Some really great advice OP.

I often walk on the moors and through public footpath fields and sometimes you only see the cows when you’re already in too far.

I’m scared of cows, so always try to avoid them if I can but sometimes they are unavoidable.

I think this should be a legal requirement. I was in a field on a public footpath which I had scanned and thought it was empty. Next thing three horses came galloping towards me and my two dogs. Myself and the puppy managed to run to the stye, my older dog got a bit of a chase but she got out eventually as she knows that field well. It's a horrible feeling and I really did scan the horizon. A sign would have made all the difference.

We were once chased by cows with our dog. Luckily I knew what to do. I released the dog and turned around to face the cows. I held out my arms and roared at them. It stopped them immediately. I grew up in the country and as kids we used to play a dare game, where you got the cows to chase you. It’s horrifying what we got up to. I would literally kill my kids if they did that.

To produce just a few factory produced artificial vegetarian options to meat is the equivalent of driving 2000 miles on a petrol engine. Who’s fucking who exactly ?

I have a shepherds hut I rent out next to a field of cows and this is absolutely why I don't let people bring dogs. I can well imagine a dog getting over or through the fence and the owner instinctively running after it.

I've been accused of hating dogs and discrimination (!!!) because I won't allow dogs. People have no idea.

Essentially, you have to view it the other way around: farms expanded over public footpaths. The footpaths were there first and are often ancient trails that have been used for hundreds if not thousands of years. Given they’re public property, the farmer’s obliged to keep them open. He can fence his or her land off either side, if he/she so wishes, though most don’t bother.

I’m not sure where you’re posting from, however it’s worth keeping in mind truly “wild” land is much more sparse - if not virtually non-existent in England. It’s not like the USA where you have great swathes of land. Everything kind of runs into each other. If it wasn’t for keeping the footpaths open, most of our countryside would be completely inaccessible - for example, even a nature reserve will often require a walk across a farmer’s field (and many nature reserves are grazed themselves!)

If everyone stayed out of fields with cows on then in Oxford no one would use our biggest green space, Port Meadow. Which in fact is always full of familes, dog walkers, children, students having picnics, and people getting to their allotment, or to the pub, or a boating club. And obviously many long distance walks take you through fields with livestock. It’s obviously completely impractical to say avoid all fields with cows and tantamount to saying stay in towns and never go for a countryside walk. Knowing to be cautious, and knowing advice like the OP provided is great, but walking around cows is surely safer than walking around traffic, and no one is suggesting we should all stop walking in towns.

We went to the edge of the Cotswolds on holiday and looked online for some walks to do through the countryside.
There were many available, and they involved using public footpaths, and we ended up in fields with cows, by following the designated walk.
We were wary and went round the edges of the fields involved, thankfully no dogs with us, but being city dwellers, we were surprised at the number of footpaths going through fields with cows.
I don't know why there are so many footpaths through farmers' fields, but I think the OP has given us a good idea of how to avoid being injured, if the cows decide to react to us.

Got a citation for that? 😆

I was brought up in the back of beyond and often as a child my road walking home had free roaming cattle (I wasn't walking through the field, it's just the fields by the road didn't have fences). They were never aggressive but they bloody followed me and I was terrified! and whereas sheep could be scared off with a clap and a shout, cows didn't give a shiny shit. In my case they just wanted fed but the size of them is intimidating in the extreme. I am always extremely cautious and avoid walking through cow fields with dog or not. Feel terrible for this poor girl, probably didn't realise that there was a potential danger (think she'd taken a pic of the cows and sent it to her mum in a very casual way). So sad.

I walk regularly around my village with my dog. There's one field that often has cows and has a public footpath running straight across. I always check with a hardbitten farming friend who has worked with cows and dogs his whole life and lives next door. His answer if there are cows in the field is always "you can walk across if you want to end up in hospital". Wise advice.

When my current dog was young a long circular route took us through a field with cows. I checked my lead was secure, brought him to heal, noted the cows were the other side of the field to my route through and walked in.

By the time I'd reached the other gate, the cows were almost on us. They were just walking, didn't seem spooked and we were quick and calm. But they came to us anyway and moved much faster than I imagined they would.

I still won't ever go through a cow field again. Especially not with the added responsibility of a dog.

1. Stay out of fields with cows.

I was wearing my baby and walking past a field of cows. They ran at us but luckily a small fence put them off. I've always wondered if they were inquisitive or didn't like that I was wearing my 9 month old ( quite bouncy and chatty by then).

Cows I get... but there is a farmer in north Wales who deliberately puts a bull in a field on a public footpath which really grinds my gears.

I live rurally with several large farms in the area. I walk miles daily with my dogs, and can't tell you how frustrating it is that farmers use large fields with only one entry/exit without providing any level of protection for walkers. Most rights of way are hundreds of years old. All it takes is an electric fence for everyone to co-exist in harmony. Horses can be just as hair raising to walk through fields with as a herd of cows. I've often had to turn back and walk the way I came because I'm not risking my life or my dogs.

What do you do when that's your only reasonable route from A to B?

Who ought to pay for the signage? Oh, the farmer again? Just as they also have to pay to maintain the footpaths.. for no benefit to themselves. Public footpaths across farmland are nothing but a nuisance to farmers.

Exactly. To say "Stay out of fields with cows in" is pretty much to say "Your hard won rights of access to the British countryside mean nothing." Cows are everywhere. If you're doing a 15 mile circular walk, one tiny section of which involves crossing fields that may or may not have cows- and for which there is no reasonable detour- then what, can't you do that walk?

A friend witnessed a woman- who did not have a dog- get attacked by cows on the South West Coast Path. So that's- what- nobody can ever walk the South West Coast Path again, because on stretches there are cows?

This is why I feel the "Well, it's your responsibility to stay out of fields with cows in" line of thinking is so dangerous. Because it risks limiting access to the British countryside for all of us, especially us hikers.