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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to have been scared away by cows?

94 replies

GoodButNoMedals · 31/07/2012 15:49

I took the dcs out for a picnic in the sunshine today. We went somewhere out in the country, along a nice footpath through a farm, to an allegedly lovely pond and field with lots of space for the kids to play. Half way along this walk that I kept promising the kids would be worth it, we come to a gate leading into a field with cows (bullocks actually I think but I wasn't looking too closely) in it. We went through the gate and the cattle all stood up and looked at us, we walked a bit further along the footpath and they started coming towards us, that was when both dcs and I turned back and ran walked quickly back to the gate. We had our picnic in a not especially pleasant field, it wasn't horrible but it wasn't the idyllic spot we were aiming for.

Dp thinks we were being soft and wimpy, that the cows would have been fine, and laughed hysterically at the thought of us running away from cows. AIBU to have found them really scarey a bit unnerving?

OP posts:
Ormiriathomimus · 31/07/2012 16:52

I do wish the fucking countryside code put more onus on landowners not to fill the entire countryside with large animals that take might take violent exception to my dog who happens to be terrified of them and wouldn't go near them given the choice. Most of the nearest rows are covered in cows this time of year with calves.

squoosh · 31/07/2012 16:53

The Guardian magazine's Real Life Experience a few weeks ago was about a farmer who was nearly killed by a cow who took a dislike to him.

They are dopey animals but not always safe.

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/15/crushed-by-cow-experience

QuenelleOJersey2012 · 31/07/2012 16:53

YADNBU

Didn't David whatsisname get attacked and left for dead by cows?

5Foot5 · 31/07/2012 16:53

I have walked through a lot of cow fields and honestly haven't had any problems.

But then I never have a dog with me and I believe that is when you are most at risk. Some advice I heard is that if you have your dog with you and the cows "attack" you should let your dog go. It won't attack the cows as they are too big but will almost certainly make good its own escape. In doing so it will divert the cows attention from you as it is only the dog they are worried about.

QuenelleOJersey2012 · 31/07/2012 16:53

Blunkett

5Foot5 · 31/07/2012 16:55

"Didn't David whatsisname get attacked and left for dead by cows?"

If you mean David Blunkett then yes - but again he almost certainly had his dog with him. I suppose in his case the advice to let the dog go wouldn't really apply...

Ormiriathomimus · 31/07/2012 16:55

Woman was killed by cows in the fields we walk in last summer. Hence my nervousness.

OatyBeatie · 31/07/2012 16:56

That's a terrifying story isn't it squoosh. As I recall, he saved himself by gouging the cow's eyes out. That wasn't mentioned in the MN Cow Plan.

guanosoup · 31/07/2012 16:57

I am scared of sheep, ffs Blush and will not go in a field of them.
Don't even talk to me about a field of cows... shudder...

Eve · 31/07/2012 16:57

was this a public field for having a picnic in?

You are allowed to walk along a public footpath through a field, you are not allowed to wander of that footpath and certainly not allowed to make yourself at home to play and have a picnic is a field that is privately owned.

SoleSource · 31/07/2012 16:58

I.ve just ate a double whopper burger, if that makes anybody feel any better.:)

LemarchandsCoxlessPair · 31/07/2012 16:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Catsmamma · 31/07/2012 17:06

i don't like them either...they watch me and the dogs when we go walking along the roads

i was most of the way round a walk once when in the last field I spotted the cows, but it would have been fool hardy to go back..i'd done most of the walk by then!

Anyhoo, i told the dog (only had kelly with me then) it was every man for himself and that he was to leg it after me to the gate if they went for us.

In the event they just sort of raised their heads at us, but I could tell they were thinking about getting up to no good.

They used to show a lot more interest with our old dog, he was black and white so I often wondered if they thought we were stealing one of their babies.

MoreBeta · 31/07/2012 18:30

No need to be frightened of sheep. They are just knitting on legs. Grin

Pigs on the other hand will eat you if in the right frame of mind.

McPhee · 31/07/2012 18:32

I hate cows

They've all got that weird look in their eyes

Creeps me out Blush

So do horses, and chickens, and geese and..........................Grin

gollygosh123 · 31/07/2012 18:47

I do wish the fucking countryside code put more onus on landowners not to fill the entire countryside with large animals

urm, if it werent for this, the countryside would be a lot less accessible - it is there for this reason which u are privileged to have access to

stop farming animals for walkers - ridiculous!

gollygosh123 · 31/07/2012 18:47

and agree with eve - stay on the paths

SoleSource · 31/07/2012 18:48

Cows are huge. I remember the first time I did see one and was amazed at their size.

archareastie · 31/07/2012 18:52

YANBU at all. DH and I were once on an epic walk and got to a field of cows who I kid you not head butted our backs following us en masse as we walked across the field. I'm scared of cows at the best of times and spent the entire time quietly squealing to DH how scared I was. DH just kept telling me to walk slowly as if we ran they would run too and might trample us Shock . Never ever again!

Eve · 31/07/2012 18:56

Gollygosh... Did someone really post that????

Don't put animals in countryside!

I know let's house them all in big pens with no room to move & factory farm them, fill them with antibiotics & drugs and let the lovely public walk through fields, build all over them & buy milk at 10p a pint!!!!!

theinets · 31/07/2012 18:58

I'm from the country and my heart still starts beating when i walk through a field of bullocks. They are curious by nature, and want to investigate you, usually not in an agressive way, but in a group they can be a bit intimidating. As long as they are not in mixed family groups with young calves and cows its generally ok. But i admit when they start coming towards you it can be nerve wracking. The best thing is not to panic and run as they can take flight. If you feel uncomfortable, and they are surrounding you a shout as they approach or clap your hands is often enough to make them scatter. Always good to have an alternative escape route planned in case you feel too scared though.

ScarletLadyOfTheNight01 · 31/07/2012 19:03

I like cows, but if they all started towards me like that then I'd get out of there as well. Our school field was next to a cattle field but it had a big iron fence between them. We used to feed them grass through the fence though. You need to respect them, like you do horses, which are also easily spooked.

Now GEESE on the other hand...they are evil. I've been chased by a gaggle of the evil fuckers before. They scare the shit out of me.

fookinell · 31/07/2012 19:05

Me and my DH went for a walk in the peak disctrict last year, we were walking across a field full of very placid cows, the farmer arrives in his truck sees us and drives over to a gate opens it and lets a bull into the field, he drives off, the bull sees us and for about 20mins tries to charge at us. The cows are by this time going crazy, we had 3 feet high crumbling wall to get behind so the bull couldnt get us. We eventually managed to distract the bull and run over barbed wire fencing and across a river, when we got across i bawled my eyes out, i love cows but i hate that fucking farmer....strange whenever i tell this story people actually laugh.. wtf

AgathaFusty · 31/07/2012 19:08

We had a bad experience a few years ago being stampeded by a field of cows - we had our dog with us. Everyone laughs when I tell them about it, but it's no fucking joke when it happens, and people are killed every year by cows so it's obviously a very real danger.

Quicksie · 31/07/2012 19:09

YANBU.

Last year whilst having a lovely walk through Stowe Park with my DP and border collie (who does the slinky sheepdog thing, and never aggresses livestock), we were chased by a herd of bullocks. I grew up in the country and regularly walked through cow fields to get to school.walk our old dog, so I knew that they were not just doing the 'curious cow' thing of coming for a sniff. They wanted to kill us, and no one will convince me otherwise! They chased us full tilt across the field, we split up and the bullocks separated in to two groups to get us! My DP had to let go of the dog lead so our collie could leg it away, most of the cows followed her and she managed to crawl under a gate before they gored her.

Needless to say, the dog is terrified of cows now! When we finally got back together and continued via a different track, we met a park warden in a landrover who had seen what happened. He said that he wouldn't even drive through the field, as the bullocks attacked the landrover if he tried it!

I agree with all the posts about the countryside being a working environment, and tourists and walkers fitting in around the main purpose of the land...but you would think the farmer would avoid putting animals like that in a field with a popular footpath through it?!