Daniel’s story: Unprovoked attack, the outcome could have been much worse.

Report number: 841

Date of incident: 30/4/24

Site of incident: One of the fields that sits on Draycott Old Road in Draycott in the Moors, Staffordshire.

1 Person, no dog.

I was out for a walk in my local area as I do every evening. I always use the public footpaths, taking me through a number of fields, one of which can tend to have cattle in it. I have never had any problems in the past, however, last night was different.

After having gone over a stile and walked 5-10 meters from it, I realised there was a cow behind me to my left that was initially hidden by the hedge. This cow immediately moved towards me and got between myself and the stile, so I had nowhere to go.

The cow charged at me, head butting me to the ground before rising up on its hind legs. Luckily I was able to roll out of the way before the cow hit the ground and make for the stile. The cow chased me, so instead of using the stile I had to throw myself head first over an almost 5 foot high gate (this was to the side of the stile), landing flat on my back on hard mud that had been dried out by the sun.

I am without serious injury, just a stiff back, sore chest from the head-butt and slightly sprained wrist. My back and wrist injuries were as a result of front flipping head first over the gate. There was no provocation on my part and I did not have a dog with me—the cow was immediately aggressive and came out of nowhere.

Daniel has a question –

I am unsure what is the best thing to do after this attack. I am concerned that if I were smaller, slower or weaker than myself I would’ve been seriously hurt, and I would like to do whatever I can to stop that from happening in this particular field.

Killer Cows comment –

We agree, this situation could have resulted in far worse injuries if someone was not as quick to escape that field. We strongly advise everyone who has had a near miss or minor injury to report the incident to the Health and Safety Executive, they handle deaths and serious injuries and also those occasions where a potentially more lethal outcome could have occurred – and we know (unfortunately) that any attack by a cow is potentially extremely dangerous. https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/tell-us-about-a-health-and-safety-issue.htm