Phobia of cows

[SparklySarah]

Originally Posted by Roy_Nikon

1) There's no such thing as a "safe" bull.

3) Bulls that are hand-raised and "tame" are vastly more likely to attack humans than those raised amongst other cattle.

Originally Posted by epops

best memory of all is leading a massive charolais cross bull across the farm with nothing more than a thin rope and a stick to gently move him on with he was a great placid old thing

My dad knew a very safe bull that had been hand-raised and never showed the least bit of aggression. Can't remember the breed though (waiting for a reply from him to tell me what it was!). He used to work on a farm near an bovine AI centre. The bulls there would usually be put down after their second year as after that they weren't seen to be as good for the AI. This one bull was due to be put down but dad's boss couldn't bear the thought of a perfectly healthy bull being killed because he was no use to these people any more so he "adopted" him. Obviously this bull had been reared by hand probably since birth so was used to people. He was as tame as you could get; completely docile. Dad used to take him for walks down the high street in Hartford on a daily basis with no trouble at all, and he was a massive beast! Only used a halter and a stick, t'was all he needed. There was one time when he was walking behind a man who was all in his tweeds and a bit stuck up and politely asked him to move aside. The man turned around and was just about to say something along the lines of "Who do you think you are?!" and then saw the bull. Needless to say he walked very quickly in the opposite direction after that sight! But this bull never hurt or turned on anyone in his entire life with this farmer, and lived out a happy docile life. xxx

[Tringa]

Yes Pete84, I remember the cows on Wanstead flats/Whipps Cross and generally anywhere they wanted to go in this bit of NE London.

We always looked forward to them arriving. I think the date was around April 15th each year. They did get everywhere (one ate a hydrangea in our front garden) but I never heard of any problems with them. As I recall some used to be a bit jumpy for a couple of days or so, but then settled down.

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by SparklySarah

But this bull never hurt or turned on anyone in his entire life with this farmer, and lived out a happy docile life.

Nice story, Sarah. How long did the bull live, then?

Jim

[SparklySarah]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

Nice story, Sarah. How long did the bull live, then?

Jim

Not sure. I'll ask dad when he gets back. A good while I think.

Think it was called a Marcajana, weighed about 1.5 imperial tons and stood about 6ft at the shoulder. xxx

[Gelert]

epops - I'm fascinated to read about your experience of the charolais. We always regarded them as rather bad tempered and harder to handle than many breeds!

[El Neilio 10]

Just read through the whole thread - fascinating. It seems many have similar experiences of being bullied a little by our nation's livestock and it's understandable that we all should fear a little for our safety when in their company. Whenever I'm in the countryside, I must admit, my main worry are horses (now they are fast, naturally) and farm dogs (which won't trample / kick you death obviously but could deliver a serious savaging if the mood took them and especially if there were a number of them together).

In all my years studying animals and encountering them, I like to think that the only predictable thing about how a large potentially dangerous animal will behave is that it's inherently UNPREDICTABLE. This being the case, whilst it's a good idea generally to act confident around any animal, it's a good idea also to always expect the expected and have plan B escape routes in mind.

A rather radical thought sprung to mind whilst reading through the thread also, and it might be of more use to vulnerable people out walking such as, say, the elderly (though I'm sure they're obviously going to be in the minority amongst ramblers, of course, for obvious mobility reasons).

If in the middle of a field and worried about increasingly curious behaviour towards you off the livestock (and where all options of getting out of the field swiftly are out of the question), could lying down and "playing dead" prove the best defence against the livestock's behaviour turning aggressive? Whilst lying down the person would of course be well advised to squint through half-closed eyes to check that their pursuer's behaviour was becoming less aggressive, all the same.

Of course, it would have to be an option of last resort and I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be many volunteers prepared to test the hypothesis. It's just that all livestock are herbivores and would never fancy biting you with a view to you being a food source. I'm also pretty sure they'd resist the urge to stomp up and down on something they already considered to be dead / playing dead and therefore defenceless / no threat to them at all. (This of course contradicts my statement above that animals are only predictable in that you can never really be sure how they'll behave .)

Some of the posts kind of support all this where human children are involved (kids can be cowardly in the extreme but can also be dangerously brave in the extreme depending on their nature). Those posts mention how the kids lay down so that the cows could lick them. Then again, of course, livestock will react differently to adults as they would children as they could perceive adult humans to more of a threat to them than a child could ever possibly be.

Does anyone know of anyone ever having tried this through being forced to due to the unique circumstances they were facing?

Hmmmm...

[Jim Ford]

I understand that if an animal looks like it's getting too close for comfort, opening you coat out (like a 'flasher'!) makes you look much bigger to the animal and will put them off. I've yet to try it though!

Jim

[JoulesH]

As a cattle farmer, I would never ever lie down. Sitting / lying down in a field and being approached by curious cows who move back when you say 'boo' is one thing. Sitting down when being pursued by cows that you perceive are becoming increasingly agitated is crazy and dangerous. Once you're down you have lost the ablility to move quickly from under their feet and most people are killed/ injured by TRAMPLING - often because they have fallen over in their haste to move (or been pushed over by a cow).

[muldonach]

Originally Posted by El Neilio 10

........
If in the middle of a field and worried about increasingly curious behaviour towards you off the livestock (and where all options of getting out of the field swiftly are out of the question), could lying down and "playing dead" prove the best defence against the livestock's behaviour turning aggressive? Whilst lying down the person would of course be well advised to squint through half-closed eyes to check that their pursuer's behaviour was becoming less aggressive, all the same

Of course, it would have to be an option of last resort .........

Does anyone know of anyone ever having tried this through being forced to due to the unique circumstances they were facing?

Hmmmm...

Would not recommend it at all - if the cattle are already being aggressive then your only real option is to make for the nearest possible escape or cover. I would suggest that you avoid turning your back on them and do not run unless you are absolutely convinced you can make the fence or dyke with time to spare.If you lie down then I would expect you to be totally surrounded in very short order.

Altogether better to face them down in my experience, in the vast majority of cases cattle will be curious rather than aggressive.

If you are regularly encountering excitable cattle then a good walking stick is a worthwhile investment and a decent fist sized stone well worth having to hand.

I have to say that the only real aggression I have encountered has been from dairy bulls apart from one run in with a newly calved galloway where self and two spaniels retired with the honours even all around.

One other tip - if the bull has a chain hung on the nose ring - go round that field rather than across it.

Regards
mac

[Tringa]

Very interesting thread especially as for many years we had cattle roaming freely outside our house.

We live close to Wanstead Flats in east London. Wanstead Flats is part of Epping Forest and Commoners have had rights to graze cattle in the forest for hundreds of years.

The cattle used to arrive mid April and were removed in mid November. I don't know how many were grazed in total, but in some years I have counted over 150. Since BSE and foot and mouth in the 90s there has been no cows grazed in the Forest, though there has been some limited reintroduction of grazing in the last 6 years or so.

I don't know what breed etc of cattle were grazed, but apart from minor encounters, usually caused by some people failing to realise that cattle can be decidedly unimpressed by cars, I heard of only one major incident - a motorcyclist was killed by a collision with a cow in thick fog - in over 15 years.

Does anyone know anything about the Forest cattle that would make them more docile and able to cope with an almost urban environment without incident?