On the 26th August, 2022, I took my dogs out on our regular walk. I was walking on the old railway line just outside of Trevor (LL20) and going towards Llangollen, in Wales. The railway line links to a road which goes towards the canal.
The railway line is narrow with steep sides which go down to field fences. Cows are sometimes seen on the line, but they only normally come near the right-of-way if there is wet weather. I will turn and walk away if I see cows.
On this day, halfway along the railway line I became aware of cows running towards us. The cows had calves with them, and I think they were red polls.
These cows were running fast and straight at us. They hadn’t been startled by us, but by something else.
The next thing I saw was a quad bike coming around them and getting in front of them. The cows weren’t stopping, so I got as far to the side as I could against a tree and pulled my dogs with me. I had to go through thorn bushes and stinging nettles to get there (I have a lot of allergies and react strongly to nettles). We stood against the tree and the quad bike went past us.
The cows stopped next to us about a meter away. It was obvious they were quite angry, especially the mums. Somehow my dog didn’t bark, I think because he was so scared. The quad bike took forever to come back and the cows were all staring at us. All I got was a sorry and the quad bike then chased the cows back down the railway line.
I burst in to tears and haven’t stopped crying since (about 4 hours) and can feel myself shaking and being jittery. It was like a scene from Jumanji, and I was so sure they were going to crush us. I knew we couldn’t out run them and there was nowhere to get out of the way without getting injured. We were about a meter from being crushed.
Luckily, I had no injuries from the cows, but I have some minor injuries from the thorns and stinging nettles I had to go through. I had to pull the dogs across thorn bushes too, so I need to give them a check over for cuts and scratches. One of the dogs is very nervous anyway and I suspect there will be psychological rather than physical issues.
The cows have left me terrified though – and set off a panic attack.
I honestly thought they were going to trample into me and there was no space for me to get away. I may ring a mental health support line as it has set me off crying and at the moment I can’t get what happened out of my head.
I haven’t reported the incident to anybody and don’t know if I should.
This path is regularly used by locals and visitors to the area. It is advertised as a circular route for everyone to use. There were no warning signs and there is no real need for the cows to have access to that particular part of the path, there is an obvious shut off for them by the exit to the road. A barrier should be put there to prevent cows accessing the path.
Editor’s note:
So sorry to hear about this distressing incident. You did not leave your email address, so we have no way to contact you. Hope you find someone to talk to, we know how emotionally distressing these attacks can be.
You asked who you should report the attack to: first of all, the farmer if you know who that is. Your local authority will have somebody responsible for public footpaths, and you should let them know what happened. Next the local police (although they may not be interested), or the local Rambler’s group. Reporting is not straightforward and you can find further information at the bottom of this page.
Response ID 266,778,421
Photo Credit: etheriel, Pixaby
Cattle Safety 