UK: Farmers issue warning after fatal cow attacks

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 8/25/09 | Alexander Munro

[NormsRevenge]

LONDON (Reuters) – The deaths of no fewer than four people after being trampled by cows in the past two months has prompted Britain's main farming union to issue a warning about the dangers of provoking the normally docile animals.

Cows can become aggressive and charge, especially when calves are present and walkers are accompanied by dogs, said the National Farmers Union (NFU).

The union and the Ramblers' Association both advise that walkers release dogs from their leads when passing through a field of cows.

"The cattle are interested in the dog, not the walker," said Robert Sheasby, Rural Surveyor at the NFU.

"As the cattle try to get the dog, there's a high chance they will get the walker too."

Britain has 7.5 million cows but in the past eight years there have only been 18 deaths involving cattle, including bulls whose dangers are well-known.

[NormsRevenge]

Be careful out there.

Ya never know for whom the cow moos.

[KarlInOhio]

Will Parliament declare cows to be deadly weapons and outlaw them?

[brownsfan]

If you provoke a cow and it kills you... it’s just a little cholrine in the gene pool.

[Responsibility2nd]

Killer Cow Ping!

Now for some music.....

Fat and docile, big and dumb
They look so stupid, they aren’t much fun
Cows aren’t fun

They eat to grow, they grow to die
They die to be eat at the hamburger fry
Cows well done

Nobody thunk it, nobody knew
No one imagined the great cow guru
Cows are one

He hid in the forest, read books with great zeal
He loved Che Guevera, a revolutionary veal
Cow Tse Tongue

He spoke about justice, but nobody stirred
He felt like an outcast, alone, in the herd.
Cow doldrums

He mooed we must fight, escape or we’ll die
Cows gathered around, cause the stakes were so high
Bad cow pun

But then he was captured, stuffed into a crate
Loaded onto a truck, where he rode to his fate
Cows are bummed

He was a scrawny calf, who looked rather woozy
No one suspected he was packing Uzi
Cows with guns

They came with a needle to stick in his thigh
He kicked for the groin, he pissed in their eye
Cow well hung

Knocked over a tractor and ran for the door
Six gallons of gas flowed out on the floor
Run cows run!

He picked up a bullhorn and jumped up on the hay
We are free roving bovines, we run free today

We will fight for bovine freedom
And hold our large heads high
We will run free with the Buffalo, or die...
Cows with guns

They crashed the gate in a great stampede
Tipped over a milk truck, torched all the feed
Cows have fun

Sixty police cars were piled in a heap
Covered in cow pies, covered up deep
Much cow dump

Black smoke rising, darkening the day
Twelve burning McDonalds, have it your way

We will fight for bovine freedom
And hold our large heads high
We will run free with the Buffalo, or die
Cows with guns

The President said “Enough is Enough!
These uppity cattle, its time to get tough”
Cow dung flung

The newspapers gloated, folks sighed with relief
Tomorrow at noon, they would all be ground beef
Cows on buns

The cows were surrounded, they waited and prayed
They mooed their last moos,
they chewed their last hay
Cows out gunned

The order was given, turn cows to whoppers
Enforced by the might of ten thousand coppers
But on the horizon, surrounding the shoppers
Came the deafening roar, of chickens, in choppers!

We will fight for bovine freedom
And hold our large heads high
We will run free with the Buffalo, or die
Cows with guns

[norraad]

So the cows even the score a bit, bully for them, who cares, they’ll never catch up.

[Uncle Ike]

There’s just got to be a ‘Farmer-and-the-city-slicker’ joke in there somewhere....

[Melinda in TN]

We used to raise registered Beefmasters and they are normally very docile. My bull was a beauty and was massive. The Vet said he was one of the biggest he’d ever seen and would probably weigh 1500lbs plus. He was so gentle I could ride him, brush him, and lead him with a rope around his neck. The only thing I couldn’t do was go in the pasture with an umbrella. The first time I did that was the last time. He charged me in the middle of the pasture. Since this was totally out of character for him I figured out it was the umbrella. I threw it down and he stomped it to mush. After he killed the umbrella he came to me to have his ears scratched. I think he was protecting me from the umbrella. LOL

[Rennes Templar]

“Cows can become aggressive and charge, especially when calves are present and walkers are accompanied by dogs”

The story sounds a little beefed up to me. They’re milking it for all its worth.

[guitarplayer1953]

I think it might be aunt Margret out walking her Yorkie and decides to cut though the old cow pasture. Never seen the cows coming looked like uncle tom maybe

[11Bush]

"The cattle are interested in the dog, not the walker," said Robert Sheasby, Rural Surveyor at the NFU.

Well, the dogs are interested in the cows, so that might be a problem.

Used to have an Alaskan Malamute, dumb as a bag of hair, that spent most of his day chasing the neighbors cows. More of a game than anything else to him and the cows. I would drive by and he would be laying in the middle of the herd as they grazed without a care.

[armymarinemom]

Another reason for the yut to give up on cows and tip Smart Cars.

[rellimpank]

—thanks to strict British gun laws, this will never happen-

—http://www.shagrat.net/Portfolio/cows.swf

[Myrddin]

It's hard to know what might set an animal off. A Pocatello animal control officer was dispatched to a dog call. She was wearing a coat with velcro closures. When she pulled the velcro open, the dog attacked her immediately. It turns out the dog was a pit bull trained to fight. The dogs are fitted with a velcro based muzzle. The muzzle is pulled off just before the fight begins. The dog was simply reacting to its training. The sound of the velcro being pulled open was the signal to fight.

[Bon mots]

[Vigilanteman]

Was the umbrella open? What color was it?

I had a Jersey cow who went ape if I had my hood up, but I could wear a hat and she'd let me lead her around by a little curled stub of a horn, maybe 5 inches long, which had grown out when she wasn't completely dehorned as a calf. She would even follow me if I let go of the horn and give me an occasional friendly butt in the rump just so I knew she was still with me.

For some reason, she could recognize me in a hat pulled down completely over my ears, but she wouldn't let me get near her if I was wearing the hood up.

[ViLaLuz]

Well, that’s it. Have the government take over all cattle livestock herds.

[dog breath]

How now...brown cow.. uuhh

[Joe 6-pack]

"The story sounds a little beefed up to me. They’re milking it for all its worth."

I don't know about that...it sounds like there's a lot at steak.

[Candor7]

Will Parliament declare cows to be deadly weapons and outlaw them?>>>>>>>>>>>

Definitely, They are very dangerous, and seem to be able to access a resevoir of gas for the flame thrower varient nnow evolving rapidly because of global warming.

Attack Cows. In yer face. Its happening!

[Chode]

trespassers without a clue...