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.

We are surrounded by livestock, I’ve grown up around them and I would not take my dogs near them. I would rather drive a few miles and take my dogs to a park than walk them on the doorstep when the cows are with calves (We do have a field for off leash running).

I have been known to walk miles if cows appear. I don’t trust the cows or my dogs (although trust them with horses and sheep).

I always hate walking through fields with cows in. When I tell people I'm scared they think it's funny.

As a young person I did a lot of countryside walks and you can bet that at mile 19 of a 20 mile day hike, with literally no way round except for trespassing, there'd be a field of cows with the public footpath running smack through the middle. What's one supposed to do? Go back and add on potentially 10 miles to find an alternative way, thus being out on the moors in the dark? Start going off path and piss off the farmer and other locals? Potentially no physical way round at all safe for people depending on the area. Knock on the farmhouse door and ask them to move the herd?

Genuine question for those on the thread who are farmers putting livestock in fields with footpaths- I'd love to know what the preferred option is. I cannot believe there are many farms with footpaths in EVERY field they own so why can't they choose to use ones without them.

It’s awful. The problem is that I e been walking with my dog on a lead along a coast path or footpath and a long way into the I come across a field of cows. How am I to know when I set off? I either plough on and stick to the edge of a field or turn back and walk miles in the direction I just came! I think the footpath should be fenced off from the livestock.

Usually (but not always) round the edge of a field. Sometimes through the middle. Sometimes through a farmyard
Sometimes through people's gardens!

I don’t understand the desire to walk your dogs near livestock

What makes you think I'm a "townie"? 😆

But at least you're honest about industrial agriculture I suppose!

Canada was mentioned. First off Canada is vast and sparsely populated (ie. not packed in like sardines as we are, certainly Britain), so there is no issue of people being able to move around, and its also very young so no older laws.

Sort of. People have lived in Canada for thousands of years and some areas were pretty well-populated and involved travel and trade routes. At least as much as some parts of England. It's not that there weren't ancient laws, it's that there was a genocide, both physical and cultural, that prevented those laws continuing.

It's also the responsibility of drivers not to drive over cyclists, pedestrians on the road or motorcyclists and will be prosecuted for doing so - but all the moral superiority in the world makes fuck all difference when you're being scraped up off the surface of the A303.

Funny, that.

I think so. The other thing is that cows who are not safe around people and dogs can be required to be removed from the forest and it does happen. I am not a local local but have been here 30 plus years, all that time with carefully trained dogs. I never had any trouble with the cows, not even when they had calves with them. I think maybe generally cows are less used to people than they used to be. I used to holiday in Sussex and the walk to the beach was through cow fields, also lived in Somerset before moving here and the cows were still being walked through the village to be milked and then back to their field. They saw more strange people and dogs and in the forest and in the Somerset village they experienced cars and other road traffic as well.

Yes. Have you never been for a walk in the UK? National parks also consist mostly of privately owned farmland.

I always avoid fields with cows if I can, certainly cows and calves. Had some very scary experiences and I don't even have a dog!

I have actually turned back on myself several miles into a footpath when the only way forward is through inquisitive cows. I do think ROW's should be wired/fenced off if the fields are occasionally used for calfing cows, for the benefit of the livestock and the walkers.

Poor woman trying to save her dog 😔

I was walking recently with my sister and came across a cow field along our walk. It was NOT calf season and our dogs were on leads. One cow cane towards my sister and her dog ( on lead) and sort of made a dive towards her. She instinctively made herself big by bringing her arms out like a cape and let go of the lead. The cow backed off and the dog ran up the field. I will no longer walk in a cow field.

Grazing fields ideally need to be rotated to allow the ground to rest, otherwise no grass would grow and it would just end up a large mud pit. Why do you think that a field a farmer owns shouldn't be used for the purposes of farming?

I think it's very clear that they would prefer nobody access the countryside at all.

(It would also, handily, mean that there'd be nobody to discover things like slurry pits leaking into watercourses and inform the Environment Agency. Win win 🙄)

Take Farthing Downs near Coulsdon. The whole area, several hectares, has cows (and some sheep in other areas).

The alternative is busy roads, not beautiful Downland. Sometimes the only option is with livestock.

Because legally the landowner has a duty of care to people walking on the land. And should do a risk assessment before putting animals in fields crossed by public footpaths, and if necessary take appropriate action to mitigate the risk.
As you should know if you actually are a farmer.

I don’t even have a dog and I wouldn’t want through a field of cows, they’re huge! Sad that someone lost their life, how tragic

Hope you still feel like this when the price of your meat and veg that farmers produce goes up.

Good advice OP.

I worked with cattle. We always carried a stick when with the cows whether they were in the field of in the yard. Even though you get to know each and every cow in dairy farming, they can be unpredictable.

One farm I worked on had 250 acres but only 3 fields without a right of way or bridleway across a portion of the other fields. So what can you do, it wasn't suitable for arable or market gardening only livestock. It is wholly unrealistic for people to expect farmers to not use their land. Everyone needs to respect each other, it's not a free for all for the farmer but it is not a free for all for the right of way users to do what the hell they like either. Everyone needs to take responsibility for safety and that means not trial biking over bluebell woods or letting their dog off a lead around livestock or not keeping styles and other entrances/exits secure, safe and easy to use.

Like another PP I live in the New Forest where the right to roam is above and beyond normal in the UK, some of the ponies have learned to bully the hell out of you for food because visitors still feed them despite all the fines and warning signs across the forest. Again I always carry a stick when walking there. There are issues with people using the New Forest, most people are polite, respectful and cherish the place but some do not and can make it a difficult place to be. Signs everywhere on how to behave but woe betide you try and strike up a polite conversation on getting someone to put their dog on a lead around ground nesting bird sites or not feed the ponies corned beef sandwiches.

Respect for the countryside is too much to ask from some visitors, it's not like they pay to be there, it's free.

A lot of vegetarians don't eat factory produced artificial vegetarian options like Quorn. It tastes like shit!

This. Plenty of places to walk.
What a tragedy though.

Why did you take a dog and a toddler into a field with livestock? Right of way or not, that’s just stupid.

They can use some of the money they get from public subsidies.

Seriously, not all farmers are like you or whoever you know who is like this. I have relatives who are respectful of public rights of way and polite to walkers. They have a path going right through their yard.

Feel like what??

And as I've already said, I don't eat meat so I'm good 👍 I've yet to hear of a walker being attacked by a cauliflower.

Unless you grow everything you eat in your back garden why would you criticise ?