More a 'what would you have done?'
Am a Londoner recently transplanted to the countryside, and adoring being able to take long walks. At the weekend, I was almost home from a fifteen-mile walk, and the last field right of way I had to take to get back to the road was through a huge field which had livestock in it. As I got closer to the animals, I realised that these consisted of (a) cows with young calves, (b) about twenty very frisky bullocks which started running in my direction when they saw me and finally, (c) a bull getting to his feet. I hesitated, and kept going through the field for a bit, trying to keep close to the hedge (which was all wire and too high to get over) but ended up getting back over the stile and retracing my steps, although because of the terrain, it ended up adding a couple of miles to my route home. I was pretty tired by then, and a bit cross with myself.
Rural types, was I being unreasonably wimpy or sensibly cautious? I grew up in dairy country, but not UK, so not used to walking through fields on rights of way and dealing with livestock in that way. I had earlier walked through a field with a bull and grown cows in it. Do you avoid bulls/ cows with calves/ herds of bullocks who seem to be responding to your appearance, or any combination of the above?
No dog involved, incidentally, just one law-abiding person with an OS map.