Charged at by about 50 cattle – completely unprovoked
Report number: 1134
Date of incident: 8/6/25
Location: I believe it was Hill House Farm, farmland between the end of Wade’s Lane and the Orwell River, near Woolverstone Suffolk.
2 people no dog
Brian’s Report: “We were walking on the public footpath from Woolverstone along the River Orwell, our plan was a ‘round-robin’ hike on marked footpaths. One section took us on a footpath across a field from the River Orwell to Wades Lane, heading towards Chelmondiston. We had seen the herd from the footpath but they were in their field so we weren’t concerned. When we got to where the path crossed the field the herd were a couple hundred yards away so we felt safe. However, not halfway across the field the herd started stampeding towards us. I raised my arms and shouted but they did not slow at all. The path went through a gap in a hedgerow to another field but there was no gate and we could not see any other gate or place of safety. They were right on our heels, we had seconds to act. We turned a hard left along the hedge, temporarily out of the herd’s site – where Helen made a decision to get into the hedge, I hesitated then realised there was no other choice. We crouched down in the brambles and hide as best we could. They stampeded past us mere feet away. We reckon there were about 50-odd. They went past us and we then saw a gate about 150 yards away, we made a decision to run for it, whereby they saw us and turned but we had just enough time and made it through to safety. I’m convinced they would have trampled us, they moved so fast towards us at first and when they came to the gate we went through they were boisterous and aggressive. Very scary, I’m in shock still and, bar lots of cuts / scrapes from the brambles, surprised we were not injured or worse.”
Brian comments: “I spoke to a woman at the house at the end of Wade’s Lane, and she said she would make a comment to the farmer about a sign to warn other walkers.”
Dog thrown into the air by cattle on National Trust Coastal path
Report number: 1133
Date of incident: 8/6/25
Location: Hemmick beach, Cornwall heading towards Caerhays Castle
2 people 1 dog on lead
Report: “We tried to walk past the cows keeping at a distance. Two cows approached the dog. The dog laid on the ground and was submissive while the cows sniffed it. Approx 10 other cows started to approach, we walked away, at this point all the cows charged. I increased pace to get away and ended up running. The dog tried to defend me and itself, it was flipped about 10 foot in the air twice by a cow. Luckily we all got to stile and got over it, if I had fallen I feared I would have been trampled. There was a sign saying ‘cattle – keep dog on lead’ and we later noted on gates smaller signs saying if cattle approached to let dog off lead. These signs should be more prominent.”
Comment: “This was a national trust coastal path. This incident was avoidable if there had been fencing to separate the path from the cows. There was no way out as the only fencing was to stop you falling off a sheer cliff.”
Cattle Safety 