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My now-ex girlfriend and I visited the UK a couple of times. She loved the cows more than anything, and when we were in Orkney she'd go out for walks and chat to them in Chinese. I found it amusing because they're so commonplace for me (I grew up right next to a large pasture), but it made me appreciate the animals a bit more.
 
SNOGGING cows – “with or without tongues” – is all the rage in Austria, endangering the animals and those smooching them, warn officials.

The disturbing trend has been promoted by Swiss app Castl, which launched its bizarre Cow Kiss Challenge to raise money for charity.

btkuh20190516.png


But the practice has been slammed, with politicians and farming officials saying that it's creating a nuisance and could lead to people getting trampled to death by upset cows, particularly those with calves.

Castl has been encouraging people in Switzerland, Germany and Austria to kiss cows for a good cause since launching its “KuhKussChallenge” on Wednesday, "with or without tongues".

As a result people have been filmed wandering onto paddocks, approaching cows, before puckering up and smooching the confused animals.

Tyrol’s state veterinary director Josef Kossler said “this is very dangerous”, especially those approaching cows looking after their calves.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/90949...-bizarre-challenge-social-media-health-fears/

maximus otter
 
Cows are cute but not that cute.
Ewww.
 
I showed this to Mr Frideswide. I believe I have mentioned somewhere that he used to work with cows.

Dear reader, he paled. Which given his saintly and stoic nature is a dramatic reaction!
 
I was raised on a dairy farm. City people are f'n nuts! BTW I have now been a city person for more than half my life, but I'm not gullible.
 
Let's see, pink eye, lockjaw, rabies...these can all be carried by cattle. These I encountered on our farm and we knew the cattle and had them treated, but we also kept our distance when they were treated.

Approaching strange cattle (though anyone thinking that kissing cattle is fun and normal needs his/her head checked) is frightening for the cattle and having one charge at you might not be the time to see if you can break the mile a minute run record.
 
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Cows and zebras in harmoony.

The best way to help cows and zebras? Make them live together

... In Kenya, a few landowners have been experimenting with keeping a mix of wildlife and cattle on their land. Lions, zebras, and other charismatic creatures draw paying tourists, and cattle can be protected at night from predators by crowding them in temporary metal corrals. But it was unclear how the wildlife’s presence affected the cattle and vice versa.

So ecologist Brian Allan at the University of Illinois in Urbana and ecologist Felicia Keesing at Bard College in Annandale, New York, investigated 23 ranches on the Laikipia Plateau in central Kenya. The area, once full of giraffes, zebras, and rhinos, is now divided into cattle ranches sometimes reaching 40,000 hectares—about 10,000 U.S. football fields—in size.

Most of the ranches contained at least some of the wildlife once common in the area, and one-third had about equal numbers of wildlife and cattle. The greater the proportion of livestock to wild animals on a ranch, the fewer blood-sucking ticks found on every animal at the ranch, including wildlife, the researchers discovered. ...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/best-way-help-cows-and-zebras-make-them-live-together
 
Cows are killers.

A woman is in a critical condition after she was trampled by cows that also killed her dog.

The walker was seriously injured in a Peak District field near the village of Sheldon at about 15:45 BST on Tuesday.

A passerby raised the alarm and the victim was later flown to hospital in Sheffield, where she remains, Derbyshire Police confirmed.

Walkers have been warned by the force to be "careful when among cattle".

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derbyshire-49661445
 
Are cows officially the most dangerous animals in the UK? There seem to be a few deaths every year. Dogs probably kill some as well. People get injured by horses, but deaths? Cats probably not too life-threatening. That leaves hamsters.
 
The wildwood trust gives the following approximations:

"According to the National Office of Statistics around 25 people each year are killed directly by animals, more are killed by road accidents relating to animals and yet more are die from infection and diseases associated with animals. Of the 25 directly related animal deaths in the UK, our top 5 killers are:

1. Horses: about 10 a year
2. Cows: about 5 a year
3. Domestic dogs: about 4 per year
4. Bees & Wasps: about 3 per year
5. Deer–attacks about 1 per year"

At the risk of being a bit obvious, by far the most dangerous animal we will encounter is Man. :(
 
In a bad mood.

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Police in Germany said a "highly aggressive" escaped cow in Bavaria destroyed a greenhouse, wrecked a scooter, damaged a police car and knocked its owner to the ground before being recaptured.

Lower Franconia police said the cow, which weighs over 1,300 pounds, escaped from a farm Saturday night and multiple police cars and a helicopter were dispatched to chase down the "highly aggressive" and "outraged" bovine.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/10/21/Highly-aggressive-cow-leads-police-on-a-chase-in-Germany/5631571674717/
 
Cows swept away by Hurricane Dorian found alive in North Carolina

Date: 14 November, 2019
Source: BBC News online

Three cows swept off an island in North Carolina during Hurricane Dorian have been found alive after apparently swimming for several miles.

The cows belong to a herd on the US state's Cedar Island but were swept away in September by a "mini tsunami" generated by Dorian.

https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampprojec...errer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From %1$s
 
Following on from CN's post..

Pregnant cow who swam four miles after hurricane gives birth to 'sea calf'

A pregnant cow who swam four miles to shore after being swept away by Hurricane Dorian in September has given birth to a “miracle” calf.

A photo of the “sea calf” was posted on Monday on Facebook by Ranch Solutions, a group hired to return the pregnant cow home to North Carolina’s Cedar Island, 350 miles east of Charlotte. The cow, Dori, was one of three swept away by Dorian that were found in the state’s Outer Banks, the Charlotte Observer reported.

The calf has one brown and one blue eye, Ranch Solutions said. Having differently colored eyes is a rare condition shared by various animals, including some wild horses.

Getting close to the mother and calf for a photo has been difficult, because they run at the sight of humans, a Cedar Island resident, Woody Hancock, told McClatchy News group. “The wild cattle that lived on Cedar Island were not used to seeing humans or having them approach them,” the state’s National Park Service said.

When Hurricane Dorian generated an 8ft (2-meter) “mini tsunami”, it washed the calf’s mother and dozens of other animals away, including 28 wild horses that died.

89940420_2465230310456873_7712691249823612928_n.jpg
 
If dogs did this they would be put down. I wonder if a farmer set the cows on the walkers?

A man has died after being attacked by a herd of cows while walking in the Yorkshire Dales, police have said.

The man, 82, from Foulridge, Pendle, was out walking with his wife at Ivescar, Ingleton on Saturday at around 13:45 BST.

North Yorkshire Police said emergency services were called but the man died at the scene.

His wife, aged 78, was badly bruised and taken by air ambulance to Lancaster Royal Infirmary.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-52869060
 
I can't help feeling that a lot of the supposed cow 'attacks' I've read about actually appear to be the result of accidental tramplings. Cows will often group up and follow walkers. I think it's partly herd instinct: in my experience, bovines, especially in groups, tend to present their front end to a perceived hazard, and even follow it - in order to keep it within sight, I've always assumed. (Also, in the wild, I believe predators tend to attack large animals from the rear - so the latter offering their head to the hazard makes good sense.) I also think that sometimes they associate humans with the distribution of food, and follow them for this reason.

A decidedly unstreamlined group of several tons of livestock can easily knock a person over without even being aware that they've done it. And once you are under all that beef, you're in hot water.

I've been followed while out walking on several occasions - the most memorable time by a group of around twenty young bullocks. I was crossing a field when I heard a sound like thunder behind me, turned around and found said gang of lads stood on the path behind me, stock still and staring at me expectantly. I turned back and carried on - thunder resumed. I stopped and turned around; there they are, stock still again, apart from the ones still bumping into their opos backsides - all with an air of 'What? Not me mister' on their faces. Happens again - I turn around, they've all stopped moving and are basically doing the bullock version of whistling nonchanlantly while staring abstractedly at some apparently interesting point on the ground. This went on for around ten minutes and actually had me giggling to myself by the end - the air of injured innocence.

One thing that strikes me on writing that is that to someone not familiar with livestock the noise made by a group of cattle moving can sound more of a rush than it actually is. What I mean is that I can see how someone might think that they are hearing running behind them, when actually it's just walking. If the person involved then panics and starts to run there's a chance the cows might then start to run to keep up. And that's potentially very dangerous indeed.
 
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...predators tend to attack large animals from the rear...

l remember being impressed by the lateral thinking of Indian park rangers: They adopted a baseball cap with a drop-down kepi-style flap to the rear, the flap having two large eyes printed on it to deter tiger attacks.

Some, of course, will always go further:

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maximus otter
 
If dogs did this they would be put down. I wonder if a farmer set the cows on the walkers?

A man has died after being attacked by a herd of cows while walking in the Yorkshire Dales, police have said.

The man, 82, from Foulridge, Pendle, was out walking with his wife at Ivescar, Ingleton on Saturday at around 13:45 BST.

North Yorkshire Police said emergency services were called but the man died at the scene.

His wife, aged 78, was badly bruised and taken by air ambulance to Lancaster Royal Infirmary.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-52869060
You would think at their age that they would know better than to walk their dogs anywhere near cows.
 
Yes, thats begging to be attacked.

Cows dont like predators, and certainly not around their calves.

They dont like being kissed either.

A great way to spread germs; do not kiss livestock, pets...or people. As a GP friend said to me about my aversion to kissing; "congratulations, you are now free from 75% ways of spreading germs..."
 
Yes, thats begging to be attacked.

Cows dont like predators, and certainly not around their calves.

They dont like being kissed either.

A great way to spread germs; do not kiss livestock, pets...or people. As a GP friend said to me about my aversion to kissing; "congratulations, you are now free from 75% ways of spreading germs..."

You would think at their age that they would know better than to walk their dogs anywhere near cows.

They weren't walking dogs. The cows attacked them. I made the point that if dogs had attacked someone they woukd be put down but cows aren't. They're left free to kill again. I wonder how many serial killer cows roam the countryside? Farmers might even control these moody maize munchers; setting them on ramblers. I reckon there's a horror film in that idea.

killer cows.jpg
 
Yes, thats begging to be attacked.

Cows dont like predators, and certainly not around their calves.

They dont like being kissed either.

A great way to spread germs; do not kiss livestock, pets...or people. As a GP friend said to me about my aversion to kissing; "congratulations, you are now free from 75% ways of spreading germs..."

At work a few months back I chatted with a customer at work who was some kind of council medical official. People with jobs like that have interesting stories to tell so I soon had him coughing up.

He'd been contacted with an urgent query about whether diseases, specifically foot and mouth, could be contracted through giving a dead badger mouth-to-mouth resuscitation...
 
They weren't walking dogs. The cows attacked them. I made the point that if dogs had attacked someone they woukd be put down but cows aren't. They're left free to kill again. I wonder how many serial killer cows roam the countryside? Farmers might even control these moody maize munchers; setting them on ramblers. I reckon there's a horror film in that idea.

View attachment 26790
I saw a news article following a Cow Fatality on our local news. One farmer stated that he soon learned which Cows he couldn’t trust and would be extremely cautious in their presence.
Wife and I saw three guys being chased by a herd in a field in Essex. The guys split up and ran to escape. They eventually exited the field near to us and I explained to them, quite light heartedly, how many people are hurt or killed by cows every year in the UK.
One of the guys asked why I had been busy taking photos of their plight so I then explained The Sun would pay handsomely for pictures of three guys being stampeded.
They took it in good humour.
 
Never had a problem with cows but would not take a dog into a field with them,
one thing I did notice was that they are very inquisitive, one day I was sat on a
rock in a field cleaning some horse tack, been there some time when suddenly
I got a almighty thump in the back, about 10 or so cows were right up behind
me in a semi circle trying to see what I was up to, never heard them arrive, buggers
snook up on me.
 
They weren't walking dogs. The cows attacked them. I made the point that if dogs had attacked someone they woukd be put down but cows aren't. They're left free to kill again. I wonder how many serial killer cows roam the countryside? Farmers might even control these moody maize munchers; setting them on ramblers. I reckon there's a horror film in that idea.

View attachment 26790

The BBC story doesn't mention dogs, which I thought was unusual for a cow-trampling incident as that seems to be the trigger so I looked for a more local source.

According to the Yorkshire post, they were indeed walking their dogs.
 
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