Report number: 1297
Date: 16/08/26
Location: Next to Vitifer Mine Carpark (on the B3212) just down the road from the Warren House Inn, Dartmoor, Devon. Close to ///pairings.always.survey. Warren House Inn, Postbridge, Yelverton, Devon PL20 6TA
Terri’s report: “It was around 9.30am. I was walking up the hill from Warren House Inn to recce the start of a Ramblers’ Walk I was due to lead from 10.00am – I wanted to know if there was a better path to join the main track. There was a group of about 10 Highland Cattle with calves sheltering under the tree by a spring/stream close to the Warren House Inn. A few cows were standing in the road (B3212) and holding up traffic – to an extent where one car pushed a cow with its bonnet to try and persuade the cow to move. This group of cars had gone by the time I descended towards the carpark – but another group of cars (about 3, plus a motorbike) were held up by the same group of cows. I decided, as I was crossing the road, to help, by shooing the cows out of the road. I had my collie cross dog with me on a lead at the time. (In hindsight, this would seem a rash thing to do, but I have never not had a cow move when I’ve shooed it before!). I came around behind the static van stationary in the road and shooed the cow that was in the middle of the road, my dog was behind me (hiding). The cow came toward me instead of moving away, advancing her wide horns and swinging her head up and down – As I put my hands out to avoid being gored (not that it would have done much good!) – my right hand was nicked by a horn (and started bleeding) and my left hand was bruised – and swelled up a short while later (going to be an awesome bruise) and I was pushed backwards to the extent I fell over onto the road – but (fortunately) the cow then turned towards the edge of the road and didn’t trample me as I fell. A calf cantered off to follow it – and as I got to my feet I thought “Aha – mother protecting calf!”. The people in the van, plus a couple of people in another van in the carpark, plus another Moorland Guide also witnessed the incident. One of the women gave me an antiseptic wipe for the cut on my left hand, and everyone was asking me how I was. I was mainly feeling a bit shocked and a little stupid too, for approaching a Mama cow with my dog in tow. I think I’ve bruised my shoulder from where I fell over in the road, but very glad I didn’t come off worse. My dog was fine, she hid behind me and didn’t bark and gave the cows wide berth!”
“One of the Ramblers accompanying me on the walk is a member of Dartmoor Preservation Society and he said he intended to report the incident to the National Park.”
Terri wanted this incident to go on our website to “remind others that shooing Mama cows who have calves is NOT a good idea (especially with a dog in tow). They are so much bigger than us. I didn’t realise initially that there was a calf with this cow as it was not in the road but under the tree with the rest of the herd.”
Terri added: “We (the Ramblers) were wondering if cows were getting more belligerent because farmers are not so hands on – and use more machinery (eg quad bikes) to handle them. These cows were maybe in not such a good mood as I saw a couple of cows lock horns with each other, under the tree AFTER I had been attacked by one of them.”
Cattle safety comments – “we’re glad Terri is ok apart from cuts, bruises and aches”
“What do people think? In your experience are cattle more belligerent? Do let us know.”
“even the most experienced walker can be caught out, calves can be hiding in the long grasses and well nigh impossible to see, so advice to avoid getting between a mother cow and her calf can be difficult to follow.”
Cattle Safety 