Popular walking route with unsafe cattle roaming across it

Report number:1234

Date: 4/5/26

Location: On the side of the river Arun just past Arundel castle

2 people with dog

Laura’s report: “We were walking on the footpath and the cows were quite a way to our right, to our left was the river. The cows started coming over, we went down towards the river but it was knee deep bog. The cattle kept following so I walked on ahead, so they would leave my partner and the dog along. I managed to get to and jump in a cattle pen, the cows surrounded that and were pushing it trying to get in. I ended up having to climb over the fence behind me which was adjacent to the railway and crawl through undergrowth to get away. I then distracted the cows while my partner and dog got away by climbing along the river bank, under a bridge and we then had to pass our dog across the fence to the railway line before skirting it and getting away. There was no other way. The cattle should have been fenced in, this is a very popular hiking route.”

Laura adds “I’ve also been chased by cows in a field close to my home in east Grinstead, my dog was on a lead and we entered the field quite a way away and intended to skirt round the edge and out, the cattle came charging at us. We only got away because there was a scaffold plank crossing from one field to the next, which slowed them down”

If you have an opinion you want to share, do let us know.