charging cows – Cattle Safety

Letting go of his dog probably saved Michael’s life

Report 1259, Response ID 329,768,059, Single walker and dog, group of cows with calves and a bull

6/6/26 Location: Between Blore & Thorpe, Ashbourne on the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border. On a bridle path between Coldwall Bridge and Coldwell Farm. The Limestone Way runs through the field as well as another public right of way. What three words are ‘chop.doubts.rotation’

Michael’s report: “Dog on the lead, tucked in behind me. I saw the cows with calves, and gave them a really wide berth but I saw a couple of cows running towards me from a distance away. I was knocked to the ground and then the other cows started gathering around. I sustained a serious leg injury which requires surgery. I let go of the dog and he bolted towards the gate and the cows chased him which probably saved my life.”

Michael added “Better signage would be a start. Also I’ve been informed by other farmers that it’s not appropriate to keep cows with calves near a very busy public footpath, there are 3 public footpaths running through the field in question. The following day a sponsored walk was taking place with 300 walkers set to walk through the field. I believe the farmer was made aware of the walk but chose not to move his cattle.”

Killer Cows comments: Michael has informed Police, HSE, Local Council Rights of Way Office, the Farmer, The Peak District National Park. We hope he makes a good recovery.

Aggressive or curious cattle? Either pose a risk to walkers.

3 recent reports follow, 2 with dogs, 1 without. All the walkers felt worried enough by the cattle’s behaviour and exited the field across potentially dangerous routes. People may argue some of the cows were “just” curious or playful rather than aggressive. If a 1/2 ton of animal is “curious” and comes charging towards you or pins you to a gate, that is dangerous. Cattle pose a risk to walkers. So what is the solution?

Signs indicating dangerous cattle in the field will not happen as the law states no dangerous animals should be kept on land with public access. Banning dogs across fields of cattle clearly will not solve the problem, half of our reports are from people with no dog. Educating people to “respect the cows” will not help, you can respect a charging cow as much as you like, but it won’t make you safe. Giving cattle a wide berth, not getting between a calf and mother, having a calm dog on a short lead – all good ideas but we have reports from those who follow all the above and yet were attacked. The solution is fencing off cattle from walkers. Read the following reports and decide what you would do in that situation.

Family attacked

Report number: 1240 Date 9/5/26 Location: Newlyns Farm field, Lodge Farm Odiham, Hampshire

Bec’s Report: “2 children (8y and 14y) along with their Aunt and dog entered field through kissing gate coming from the canal tow path into field. Aunt holds onto dog collar as the dog owner (my father 73) and myself are a few metres behind them. The first group (children, Aunt, dog) walk along footpath into field, myself and father enter field some seconds later approx 10-15 metres behind. By the time the first group reaches a bridge crossing the stream at the middle of the field one cow begins to bellow and the children become scared. Aunt and dog stop to wait for my father who has the dog lead as aunt is currently walking hunched over holding the dogs collar. I walk faster to catch up with my children, we walk together towards gate at opposite side of field quickly but not running. As we are walking away from my father, Aunt and dog we continue to hear bellowing of the cow and I see it is moving towards them. There are many cows and calves in the field, at least 20 I think, maybe more. Many cows are slowly advancing towards us but one particular big brown cow (the one who is bellowing) circles around and charges at my father who is now holding onto the dog collar and trying to put lead on.”

Popular walking route with unsafe cattle roaming across it

Report number:1234

Date: 4/5/26

Location: On the side of the river Arun just past Arundel castle

2 people with dog

Laura’s report: “We were walking on the footpath and the cows were quite a way to our right, to our left was the river. The cows started coming over, we went down towards the river but it was knee deep bog. The cattle kept following so I walked on ahead, so they would leave my partner and the dog along. I managed to get to and jump in a cattle pen, the cows surrounded that and were pushing it trying to get in. I ended up having to climb over the fence behind me which was adjacent to the railway and crawl through undergrowth to get away. I then distracted the cows while my partner and dog got away by climbing along the river bank, under a bridge and we then had to pass our dog across the fence to the railway line before skirting it and getting away. There was no other way. The cattle should have been fenced in, this is a very popular hiking route.”

Laura adds “I’ve also been chased by cows in a field close to my home in east Grinstead, my dog was on a lead and we entered the field quite a way away and intended to skirt round the edge and out, the cattle came charging at us. We only got away because there was a scaffold plank crossing from one field to the next, which slowed them down”

Cattle charged at walkers – this could have been prevented by a simple fence

Incident number: 1229
Response ID 329,262,000 Date: 16/4/26
Location: Preston Bagot, Warwickshire. Grid reference 176644

2 people, no dog

Report: “Walking around the edge of a field the cows charged. I had to climb over a barbed wire fence while my husband ran around the corner of the field.
It would be great to see special fencing protecting public footpaths that are frequently used for cattle grazing.”
Minor injuries were sustained and the incident was reported to the police & the local authority who said they would log the incident and that it is important to report them.

Ensuring Safety on a Walking Holiday: Cattle Management

We all have a right to walk safely along footpaths, and we can’t predict which cattle will be aggressive.

Walking holidays in the UK are great for several reasons:

There are so many different areas to discover. Our countryside is beautiful and very diverse.
We can get there without jumping on a plane – that makes me happy as I hate the palaver of flying, getting to the airport early, queuing through security, waiting with hundreds of others etc….. Also, I am trying to not take flights to keep my carbon footprint down.
We have a fantastic network of public footpaths, and bridleways, across England and Wales, giving walkers access to some stunning locations.
We know that spending our money locally helps our economy.

Charged at by cattle

Report 1224

Response ID 328,834,077

Location: Doynton High Street – field off footpath up the steps on the right when leaving the village along the High Street

Date 07/03/26

Katie’s report: “I entered the field with my dog on a short lead, I did not see any cows. As I walked into the field and turned I realised a group of black cattle, possibly bullocks, were there. My dog was very close to me. The cows started chasing and charging towards me. I had to pick up my dog and scream at them to get them to stop. They chased me to a stream which I fell into trying to escape.”

Katie comments: “There should be signs!!!!! Or even better, no cattle on fields with footpaths.”

Close call near Ilminster

Report: 1175

Date: 2/8/25

Location: Near Ilminster, Somerset. Exact location: lined.otter.trout

1 person no dog

Report from Matthew: “I saw cattle were in the field but I managed to sneak into the field and walked quietly around the edge without them noticing but as I was nearing the exit, the herd noticed me and charged – very fast and making a lot of noise! I continued walking quickly (not running) and narrowly made it to the gate and got through just before they reached me. Scary.”

Chased by cattle on an exposed part of the Cornish Coastal Path

Report: 1167

Date: 26/7/2025

Location: Coastal path in North Cornwall, near Castle Point, St Gennys

1 person and dog

Report: “The cows ran to me and surrounded me, chasing my dog into a blackthorn bush over the cliff edge and also surrounding me. I stood my ground but had to shout at them to get a way out.

My dog was stuck in the blackthorn, but was lucky to be unharmed, I managed to get her out. She was less than a foot off from going over the edge of the cliff

The cows should not have been on such an exposed path. I am confident around cows so could deal with them. But the incident was very frightening, they were after my dog and very nearly killed her by forcing her off the cliff.”

Chased by cattle on The Cotswold Way

Report: 1164

DATE: 23/6/2025

Location: A field just off of Church Road in Cheltenham Gloucestershire, part of the Cotswold Way

3 people, 2 dogs

Report: “The cows were all the way on the far side of the field away from the gate that we were walking towards. We entered the field and started walking towards the next gate which would take us into the next field (without cows) to continue along the Cotswold Way. The cows started staring at us and flicking their tails, we kept calm, our dogs were kept on leads the whole time, they were not provoking or paying attention to the cows. The cows started to walk over slowly, we became a bit wary of this.

We almost got to the next gate and one cow started charging at me. Our group unfortunately split because we panicked and ran a bit away from it. We were now far from exit routes within the field and started to calmly walk back to the nearest one, the dogs still were not provoking it or doing anything to rile the cows. Then out of nowhere they charged at us, and there were around 20 cows in this field; they all started charging, the three of us got split, one of us ran towards the original exit and the other two of us ran other ways. All of these cows were suddenly charging towards one person, and luckily her and her dog got out of the gate, if she had been 3 seconds slower they would have trampled her and as there were so many of them I think the outcome would have been bad.

I luckily scrambled under a barbed wire fence into the second field as there was no way I could have walked safely out from that field. The third person managed to scramble over a fence because they didn’t have a dog. The cows stayed waiting at the fence staring at us.”

Derbyshire cow attack knocks man unconscious

Case No. 1154

Date of Incident: 15 06 2025

Location: On PROW near High Stool Farm, Flagg, Derbyshire – WTW – cloud.carpeted.bluffs

2 people, 2 dogs

Cows with calves

Account “We entered the field on the right of way. Our dogs were on a close lead. The cows started running towards us. One charged at my husband and knocked him to the ground. He was unconscious for sometime. Cows were headbutting his head. I ran back and made myself big and loud to try and keep the cows away. My husband finally came to and he struggled to the next field. He had a very swollen face, black eye, and substantial bruising. He was admitted to hospital for his injuries. We discovered in hospital he had 3 broken vertebrae in his lumber spine and bruised/broken ribs he was in hospital overnight and is still under hospital care. This has been reported to the police and local authority.”

Respondent also states “The trauma for me was unbelievably awful. I thought my husband was dead and the incident has seriously impacted my walking confidence and seriously impacted my husbands health”

5 Spoiled walks – more frightened walkers

The dilemma of meeting cattle in the middle of a long walk

Incident number 1140
Date: 13.10.24
Site: North of East Harling. It was a route marked on OS Maps that went through East Harling Common. W3W location: ///mystified.seats.chills
Type of cow: Probably young Aberdeen Angus bullocks.
1 walker

Report: “I was on a long walk and came to this field of cattle, unfortunately I had walked miles to get here and there were no visible routes around. There were maybe 10 cows in the field. I accessed escape routes before I entered. Unfortunately the fence had been placed tight against a treeline, with a very steep drop
into a ditch. If I had to climb over the fence, I would have fallen into the water filled ditch beyond. I knew it would be tricky, and weighed up heading back, but it would have added 5 miles onto my walk so I proceeded. The stile on the other side was unfortunately slap bank in the middle of the other side. I walked around the edge of the field, away from the cattle. Unfortunately they immediately started heading over towards me. I continued to walk around the perimeter. By the time I reached the corner on the other side, a group of around 5 of the cattle had gathered around me and one of them was kind of bouncing on its front legs towards me and then backing off. I could not tell if he was being playful or aggressive. As I had reached the corner, I noticed that the corner fence pole had some diagonal supports which I thought I could use to climb over. There was a farm driveway on the other side here, so I threw my backpack over the fence and climbed/fell over out of harms way. I was especially frightened after when I was thinking about that fact I was on my own in the middle of nowhere, and had I been injured, might not have been discovered for hours or days.”
Additional comment: “For me, the solution is, if you want to put cattle on a field that has a public footpath on it, you must either: Give an alternative route around the hazard or Place the fencing at least 1.5m from the edge of the field so people can safely walk around the perimeter. I also think that farmers
should be open to prosecution for negligence with very harsh penalties including prison if anybody is killed or injured by cattle whilst traversing a public right of way to make them think twice about doing it. On another route I walked called Boudicca Way, I crossed 5 fields in succession with “Bull in field” signs. All fields were thankfully empty, but we all know the signs were there to stop people using the footpaths.”

Jay has a spoiled walk caused by cattle blocking the footpaths

Incident number 1139
Date: 08.06.25
Site: Field behind Parks Ave south Wingfield Alfreton DE557NL between Parks Ave and Manor Rd
1 dog, 1 person

Report: “I wanted to use the right of way to get to Manor Rd. As I entered the field 3 cows were on the right of way footpath, I thought I could just go around them but one charged at me very fast so I retreated back out of the field. the other two cows also ran toward me and tried to get through the gap to get out of the field. I walked away and toward the other right of way that runs behind the school. The three cows followed me. I walked past a few houses and back by the field, and the cows ran again at me, but a fence stopped them. I now saw that a huge herd was on the foot path behind the school, I knew I could no longer go on the walk I had set out for as it was not safe to cross the field on either foot path I and returned home. “
Additional comment: “I would like farmers to evaluate all their cows to see if they run at or chase people, the ones that do should only be placed in fields with no public right of way.”

Excited, curious and dangerous cattle

Incident number: 1137
Date: 9.6.25
Site: Footpath through field to Lower Preston Farm. Preston Lane. Lydeard St Lawrence. Nr Stogumber Somerset
I person and dog

Report: “I entered field via the footpath gate, it appeared empty. The field slopes down halfway across when following the path to lower Preston cottages. This is where I first saw the cows, one started
coming towards me immediately, then all the cows (bullocks) ran away from me, circled round and lined up next to each other, looking at me. By this time I had already decided to get out and opened a gate into the farmyard, my dog went first, followed by me, I got the gate closed , turned to look at the bullocks in their formation, then they charged up to the gate and fence. I made a loud noise and waved my arms, they jumped back, but only a few metres then came back. So if I hadn’t got out of the field I would have no chance of getting away from them. They were completely disinterested in my dog. I know they are just excited and curious but it’s very frightening and obviously dangerous.”
Additional comment: “Bulls and bullocks should not be in fields where there are footpaths unless the footpaths can be temporarily rerouted and well signed.”

Aggressive cattle caused a spoiled walk

Incident number 1136
Date: 9.6.25
Site: Trans Pennine trail and Howden 20. Asselby Island area.
2 people, 1 dog

Report: “We were walking the dog on a leash along the public right of way. There were cows off the path to the side, they saw us and all moved onto the footpath. My dog showed no aggression towards them not did she bark. We immediately turned around and walked back the way we came. The group of cows followed us for half a mile back to the gate. One started running towards us at one point mooing loudly. I was very scared for our and my dog’s safety. I no longer feel safe walking near cattle. We’ve had no problems with cattle before. This was the first time they followed us.”
Additional Comment: “I’d be worried this could happen to other people and if a dog was to bark at them it would lead to injury to the dog or owner”

Sign suggesting if walkers felt unsafe they should take a different route – but no alternative route signposted.

Report number: 1129

Date of incident: 2/4/25

Location: Near to Lexhayne Farm, Colyton, near Seaton in Dorset.

2 people no dog

We found a handwritten sign pinned to a stile saying the field we were entering contained cows and calves and a single bull (it gave the bull’s name, maybe Harry?). It finished by saying if walkers felt unsafe they should look for a different route. After reading the sign we saw a small herd of cows about 100 m away on the far side of the field. We could not not identify a bull and any calves present were not small. Our route was along the side of the field furthest away from the cows and they seemed calm so we felt safe enough to continue on footpath along field edge. About half along that edge we noticed the cows were slowly heading towards us. About 2 thirds of the way along we could see they were closing in and speeding up. We were forced to the very edge of the field by the bank of stream and surrounded. We felt forced to ford the stream after one cow became aggressive. As the farmer was aware that the cows created a real hazard to walkers on a known footpath there should have been a signed safe path provided either through the field or in adjacent fields.“