Horrifying moment farmer narrowly escapes being trampled by a rampaging cow which headbutts her in late-night attack
- Matthew Blair, a Cumbrian farmer, shared the footage of his wife on Twitter
- Read more: Calls for new laws to protect ramblers from ‘aggressive cattle’
A video shows the terrifying moment a farmer narrowly escapes death as she is attacked by a deranged cow.
Matthew Blair, a beef and sheep farmer from near Penrith in Cumbria, shared the footage of his wife Dani being attacked by the heifer at around 1.40am on Sunday.
In the video, Dani can be seen trying to yoke the agitated animal before it butts her with its head.
The farmer and vet is crushed between the cow and a fence and is forced to the floor by the cow, which then appears to bite the leg of her trousers.
Thankfully, her husband intervenes and pushes the animal’s head away from Dani, who is lying prostrate on the floor, before she is badly injured.
The footage shows a cow on the farm in Cumbria attacking farmer Dani in the early hours of Sunday morning
The farmer is crushed between the cow and a fence and is forced to the floor by the cow, which appears to bite the leg of her trousers
Mr Blair tweeted: ‘This cow has been with us for 7 years, she’s calved every year. She’s one of the quietest cows on the farm. This is why you should never trust any of them. Last night wasn’t a good one.
Read more: Killer Cows: Calls for new laws to protect ramblers from ‘aggressive cattle’ after the deaths of 32 people in the UK countryside over last five years
‘Dani is ok, just bruised, but if she was lone working it could of [sic] been different. Hellish.’
He added that the calf had not been ‘robbed’ from the mother cow and that both the animal and Mrs Blair were safe and well after the incident.
The farmer said he had shared the footage to encourage more discussion about livestock safety.
‘If it makes people see and understand the risk and saves a life then that’s amazing.’
According to the latest available figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) 32 people were killed by cows between 2018 and 2022, 20 per cent of all deaths in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry.
In November a 75-year-old walker was killed in Whitland, Carmarthenshire, by a rampaging cow that had escaped from a livestock market.
Pensioner Huw Evans was airlifted to hospital on November 19 after being ‘attacked and trampled’ by the escaping animal, but died from his injuries a week later.
Police were forced to put the animal, which halted trains as it strayed onto a rail line, for being ‘dangerously out of control’. The Health and Safety Executive is investigating.
Mr Blair intervened, pushing the cow away from his wife, who had been forced to the floor, before they run out of the enclosure
The farmer said he had shared the footage to encourage more discussion about livestock safety
Mother Kathy McKellar, 74, had been staying in a holiday cottage near Grindleton in Lancashire last September with her beloved cockapoo Archie, when she was trampled to death by cows in 2022.
On the afternoon of September 25, 2022 the pair went out for a walk and made their way towards Pine Wood through a series of fields farmed by David Towler.
Ms McKellar was found dead the next morning in a field being grazed by 25 Limousin cows with calves and a bull.
A post mortem CT scan revealed she died from traumatic chest injuries including fractured vertebrae and ribs.
Campaign group ‘Killer Cows’ was set up by a group of walkers who had ‘experienced aggressive behaviour by cattle’.
The campaign is lobbying for legislation including compulsory public liability insurance for all farmers who keep livestock, cattle to be separated from walkers on National Trails and a national database of cow attacks.
Martin and Margaret: Trampled by cows
On May 9, we were walking on a public footpath across a field in West Burton, in the Yorkshire Dales. The footpath provides direct access into the village from a B road and from other public rights of way over adjoining fields.
It is an area we know well, and a route we’ve walked many times before. We had our dog with us on a lead.
We didn’t see the cows to start with, but when we reached the top of a slight incline we realised there were maybe eight cows in the field, which was quite small.
Two cows were grazing directly in the line of the public footpath, so we gave them as wide a birth as we could, and walked in close proximity to the perimeter wall. We kept our small dog on a short lead.
The cows – with very little warning – became extremely agitated.
We didn’t see the calves until it was too late. Suddenly, one of the cows came toward us. Then, a big brown cow got up and came charging.
MARTIN’S STORY
‘I shouted to Margaret to let go of the dog, which she did, and the dog ran away. I managed to get in front of the brown cow to protect my wife, but the cow butted me and tossed me up into the air like a matchstick. When I got up from the ground, I saw the cows were trampling Margaret. I ran at them, shouting and kicking.
‘The whole attack only lasted 20 seconds or so, but it seemed like a lifetime.’
MARGARET’S STORY
‘The next thing I knew, I was down on the ground, and the cow was trampling on top of me. I lay on my side and managed to protect my stomach. I truly believe if I had been on my back I would have been killed. I was wearing a leather bum bag, which probably saved me from worse injury. It was completely split in two by the force of the cows’ hooves.’
INJURIES AND AFTERMATH
Margaret was airlifted by Yorkshire Air Ambulance to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough, where she was found to have suffered six broken ribs, a collapsed lung and, more seriously, a seven cm deep tear to her liver. She was kept in hospital for five days for observation, but luckily did not need surgery to repair her liver.
As far as we know, the cows are still in the field.
Source: Killer Cows
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