Helen and her sister surrounded and chased by aggressive cows in the Peak District.

Response ID 310,136,770
Incident number 1044

Date: 16.11.24
Site: On the path across the fields between Long Dale and Weaddow Lane near Elton, Derbyshire. Peak District National Park – Derbyshire Dales District Council. ///potential.comic.clusters SK 19246 60923
Type of cow: Group of Cows and bullocks. 2 walkers, dogs on lead.

Helen’s report: “The cows were in a large group near the footpath gate into the field. There was a feeder near by and some were eating from it. We entered the field with our three dogs on leads and kept to the footpath by the wall to go round the cows. They started coming towards us and we spread our arms wide and shouted for them to go away. They then charged towards my sister and her two dogs and pinned her against the wall. My dog had an orange coat on and they didn’t seem interested in her but, lead by two aggressive cows the others started jumping up on their back legs and surrounded my sister and her dogs. One cow head-butted her twice and was stamping its front legs trying to get to her dogs who were hiding behind her legs.
She started screaming and I ran back and shouted at the cows who did run back a bit. We quickly let all the dogs off the leads and I picked up my dog and she picked up her old dog. The cows then all started charging towards us and her young dog ran off down the path. The herd of at least 30 cows (who we think were bullocks but can’t be sure as we were in shock at the time) all charged off after her dog at full pelt. We followed down the hill as fast as we could to try and get to her dog, who is less than a year old. After about half a mile the cows all ran up across the field and my sister checked her dog tracker and saw the dog was ahead of us and had run up to the top of the field. She whistled her dog and it ran back to her. I had gone through a gate down the footpath track and she passed me her dog over the fence and walked back up to the gate to come down the path. We weren’t injured but at one point I did think the cows were going to kill my sister. She was so upset thinking they were going to kill her dog, and then worried that the dog had run off and would be lost and traumatised.
The dog that the cows were trying to get to was quite traumatised and was shaking like a leaf when we retrieved her.
I haven’t yet reported this incident but I am going to look at reporting it to the ramblers association and The Local Authority as we are very concerned that it could have caused very serious injury and could happen again to someone else.”