Blog

Walk needed to be diverted on Purbeck Way – fortunately walkers not harmed but this needs reporting to HSE to protect others

Incident number: 1089

Response ID: 314,115,653

Date of incident: 20.04.25

Location: Purbeck Way, between Corfe Castle and Worth Matravers, Dorset. Grid ref SY 966799

Status: Couple with no dog on PRoW

Purbeck Rambler reports that whilst attempting to walk ta section of the Purbeck way their walk was stopped by dozens of cows and calves blocking a gate entrance.

They report “The cows were of decent size – certainly not newborn with a very muddy slope upwards. This caused a bottleneck with cows moving into copse.

It was way too risky to enter field at that point. Waited half an hour. Bottom gate clear, but at the top of the field, dozens of cows and calves bottlenecked on the footpath, cows on banks either side. Just reporting it because there was no way round them and we had to climb over and under barbed wire to rejoin the Purbeck Way further on.

Still, that led us to wild garlic, so not all bad.”

Managed to keep cows away using branches

Incident number: 1088

Response ID: 314,096,255

Date of incident: 19.04.25

Location: Beaupre Castle, public footpath, St Mary Church, Cowbridge, South Wales.

Status: Couple with no dog on PRoW

Maz’s story

“We were walking on a public footpath near to the visitor attraction of Beaupre Castle. There were a group of heifers in the field,  3 Golden brown, One Black and one older heifer which was white and grey. The cows charged us 5 times and drove us to a fence by the river. I armed myself with a branch and managed to fight them back over 5 charges as my wife escaped to the gate.”

Maz adds “Either secure public rights of way or no cows on public rights of way.”

Longtown Cumbria – We are so glad this walker turned back!

Incident number: 1087

Response ID: 314,070,431

Date of incident: 16.04.25

Location: Longtown, Carlisle. Coordinates 55.0072081, -2.9745976

Status: Lone walker with dog on lead on PRoW

Scott’s story

“Walking on public footpath with dog on very short lead. Followed by cows so decided to turn back, then charged by 20-30 cows. Managed to get back to the other side of the entry point safely but it was very close to being knocked down by the cows.”

Scott adds

“Changes – warning if cows are in field or dangerous. Ideally, I’d like the public footpath to be fenced off and separate from livestock”

Watch out for cattle on Bowlhead Green to Birch Copse walk

Incident number: 1085

Response ID: 313,994,623

Date of incident: 14.04.25

Location: Field on left hand side off Bowlhead Green Road, Brook, GU8 5UW approx half a mile from A286 junction.

Status: Couple with no dog on PRoW

Godalming Rambler reported

“We were walking on the public foot path goes from Bowlhead Green to Birch Copse. The cows were the far side corner of the field. The foot path goes centrally through the field. We walked half way across the field when the cows started approaching as a herd, as we retreated they began to stampede. We then had to run back to the entrance of the field.”

We are glad that Godalming Rambler was fit enough to run and avoided injuries

Dog saves the day in East Harptree Somerset

Incident number: 1084

Response ID: 313,992,260

Date of incident: 13.04.25

Location: East Harptree, Somerset On a public right of way through field near Nettwood Lane

Status: Two people with dog on lead on PRoW

E Hale’s Story

“A group of around 20 cows or so were to the left of the gate that we needed to go through. We walked away from the public right of way to ensure that we gave them some space. Our dog was not reacting and kept on a tight lead. The cows were watching us and then they started to trot towards us and then began speeding up. Our dog started reacting so we had to let her off the lead. The cows were beginning to circle us but our small dog running around them pushed them back and we were able to run to the gate. Our dog continued to run around them, barking until we were at the gate and then she came back to us when we called her and luckily she was able to get through the cows as they had now surrounded the gate. It was very scary and I am sure that we would have been injured if not for our dog. We have walked through many fields with cattle before and have never felt this threatened and at risk of harm.

Our dog was very agitated following this incident and it took us a while to calm her down. Not sure how she will react to cows in the future now.”

Struggling to avoid a herd on public footpath in Papcastle

Incident number: 1083

Response ID: 313,984,668

Date of incident: 13.04.25

Location: Field in Papcastle on Papcastle to Workington Trail.

Status: Couple with two children with no dog on PRoW

“My partner and our 2 young children were walking a field in Papcastle. We crossed the field before, on the public footpath, and could not see any cattle. On our return, we got to the gate and saw a herd of cows in the field. They turned to look at us and then ran to the gate. They stopped about a metre before the gate and just stared at us. We waited for a while hoping that they would get bored and move along but they didn’t. We had no other route and there was a river to the side of us. We turned around and tried to go up a bank to find another way. As we turned around the cows raced at the gate. When we couldn’t find another route, we went back to the gate and the herd had moved but they had moved to the other gate which would have blocked our way out of the field. We therefore had no option but to walk up the other side of the field to see if we could find another way out. When we got to the top of the field and walked across, we were at the top of a hill, with the cows at the bottom of the hill- but they had moved from the footpath so we thought we would move back toward the footpath. However, the herd stared at us again and when we started walking back towards the path, they all started to run back in that direction (thankfully didn’t come up the hill). We were lucky that we were blocked from their view then by a large tree so we turned the opposite direction and ended up passing our children over a barbed wire fence into the neighbouring field. When we got near to the footpath in the neighbouring field, the cows noticed us again and ran to the fence and gate and one banged its head into the gate. Throughout the whole event, we kept our young children slow and quiet and we did not provoke the cows in any way. I’ve always been wary of cows and now my partner is too- although I’ve never seen cows behave in this way/ it felt like they were chasing/ stalking us.”

Our reporter states

“If the farmer had chosen to add some additional fencing, it would have prevented a metre and a half of grazing along one side of the field. I can’t understand why such precautions wouldn’t be taken. If walkers can’t safely use public footpaths then the UK would be very suffocating indeed.”

Farmer had blocked off the foot path leading to my serious injuries from one lone cow!!!!!

Incident number: 1080

Response ID: 313,939,957

Date of incident: 06.04.24

Location: Field just past the campsite by St Margaret’s Church on Welsh Bicknor by river Wye

Status: Lone walker with dog on lead on PRoW

“The Farmer had blocked off the foot path making it impossible to avoid the field and the calves were not visible until right in the field.

Very large female cow came from nowhere charging at me. She Headbutted me to the floor, and continued stamping on me and headbutting me and either bit or horned the back of my leg. I let go of my dog as soon as I hit the floor and went limp. Attack stopped by 4 men who came to my rescue . And got me off the field. Ambulances to hospital where I stayed 4 days with two broken ribs, punctured lung and a puncture wound on my leg.”

We wish this walker well and hope that she has recovered from both her physical and mental ordeal.

Popular walking route with a very excitable and frightening group of young heifers

Incident number: 1079

Response ID: 313,680,417

Date of incident: 31.03.25

Location: Fields behind the Queen’s Arms in Corton Denham Dorset

Status: Lone walker with no dog on PRW

Gaynor’s story

“I decided not to pass through their field when I saw the cows across the footpath and stayed on the other side of the hedge to find a different way round. Suddenly I heard a loud piercing bellow and hooves stampeding behind me on the other side of the hedge. It was so loud with the cows screaming and bellowing and the hooves charging. I was petrified that further along the hedge the cows could get into the field I was in. They continued making a racket, pushing against the fence and following me. If i’d decided to walk along the hedge line in the same field as them I’d have been trampled – it is a very big group of cows and it was aggressive. I was walking alone without a dog.

There were no signs on the fences along the footpath or the stile which led into the cow field. It’s a popular walk. There should be warning signs!”

Gentle warning and reminder that cows will be returning to pasture!

Cattle have been housed inside over the winter months so have been absent from our walks. In the spring when the weather gets warmer the grass starts to grow and the cattle can go back out into the fields. After the cattle have been housed indoors for a few months they are very excited about being allowed back out in the field so they run around doing laps of the field kicking their legs in the air.

So a reminder that your regular walks may now have cattle in the fields so be vigilant.

Also, like us (or not!!), they may be frisky in the Spring and exited to get back outside. They are large animals and unpredictable, so again be wary.

Spring also means calves which, although cute means that their mothers will be protective so keep clear and be wary

Keep safe everyone.

“Everyone should be able to Walk safely on a public footpath without fear. My life will never be the same again”

Incident number: 1072

Response ID: 313,179,697

Date of incident: 2020

Location: East Yorkshire

Status: 2 People with no dog

A horrible ordeal back in 2020. The people involved wish to remain anonymous due to the trauma they suffered

“We entered the field, a cow approached me from behind and pushed me to the ground, then the rest of the herd came up and attacked both myself and my husband leaving us badly injured. The group of cows that attacked us were a Stabiliser breed.

I had multiple broken ribs, a fractured shoulder, a collapsed lung, a haematoma on my head and lung, damaged nerves in my leg and PTSD. My husband was airlifted and I went by road ambulance.

This incident has been investigated by the HSE”

Our thoughts go out to this couple as we understand the ongoing trauma that they have suffered. If they wish to discuss this with anyone in our group please contact us via email (you did not leave us a contact email)  or Contact – Killer Cows

CoWS Team Update

COWS team are pushing to increase dialogue about our aims (notably the fencing off of footpaths from cattle) and since we live in different parts of England and Wales we are having zoom meetings to discuss our plans and talk about how to proceed.

So what are we doing?

We are notifying people that we now hold an excellent set of statistics on cattle attacks – and our experts should be called upon when asking how people can safely navigate a cattle field. We know cattle attacks are not rare and all near misses should be acted upon so a death or serious injury can be averted. We know that only separation of cows from walkers will keep walkers safe and cows unflustered.

Here’s where we’ve got to thus far –

1) We have sent a copy of our latest briefing (via email) to all senior coroners in England and Wales.

2) We are in the process of contacting (via email) major landowners with a copy of our latest briefing note and notification of any attacks or near misses that have occurred on their land. (This is tricky as we do not always know exactly who’s land the attacks occur on, but where we do know it is very useful information for the land owner.)

3) We are in the process of contacting organisations with sway in the farming world, eg: National Trust Board, The Ramblers, The Forestry Commission, HSE, with the above briefing report. We’ve also contacted the MP’s for agriculture and health and safety.

4) We are actively trying to use media channels to inform, but this is difficult as TV programmes seem to wish to use cattle “experts” who push the mainly useless advice of “respecting the cattle” and letting your dog go/or keeping it on a lead, depending where you are in the trampling process. We know from all your reports there is no safe way to walk through cattle (especially if you are alone or a couple) and dogs only feature in ½ of our reports (and the HSE’s)

5) Everyone who reports to us and agrees to us contacting them (and leaves an email address) is contacted by our team. This is to support those suffering from trauma and also to suggest/encourage them to also notify HSE and the landowner AND their MP – plus any other relevant sites. If we don’t notify them – they will continue to believe nothing needs to change. We also suggest that anyone injured sues the farmer – this is not encouraging money grabbing, many people are out of pocket with lack of salary, physio expenses, cost of necessary home help and need financial help.

6) Additional help is needed – We have many followers on Facebook, our website comes up very quickly now on an internet search, so we are getting more reports – it is wonderful that people are adding to our statistics (not so wonderful that attacks happen though) – more reports = more work for our team, so it would be great to have another member on our team just so when one of us feels a bit poorly, or wants to go on holiday we can without loosing our groups momentum. Send us an email if you can help cows.safety.group@gmail.com

7) You don’t have to be a core group member of COWS to help – here is a link to our latest briefing report https://killercows.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/oct-2024-cows-data-report-1.pdf and if you know anyone suffering a near miss or attack, then send the landowner this plus notice of the attack and suggest they fence off their cattle.

Kathy didn’t realise the cows were in the wood

Response ID 311,528,935
Incident number 1069
Date: 18.12.24
Site: Billingshurst, West Sussex. On a bridleway passing through woodland immediately north of the railway line, east of Rowfold Farm
No dog

Kathy’s account: “I was walking along the bridleway, which passed through an area of woodland, with a field of cows immediately east of it. There was a wire fence between me and the herd along part of the edge of the woodland, but part was open to the field. As soon as I came within sight of the animals there was some deep bellowing. Not like an ordinary mooing. I walked maybe 50metres further up the stretch of woodland, keeping an eye on the animals, because the bellowing got deeper and more animals were calling out to each other. It felt very threatening. Then I realised that there were several cows in the woodland, a couple very big, and that even the field I was aiming for to the top left of the woodland had the same cows in it, and they were all looking at me and moving towards me, making the deep bellowing noises. So I turned back the way I had come and found an alternative route. There is no doubt in my mind that had I carried on, they would have attacked me. The ground was very muddy and it would have been difficult to escape quickly.”


Kathy comments: “A public footpath is a PUBLIC footpath and it’s the responsibility of the landowner to protect users from avoidable harm.”