Foreign cows and the rambling life

A recent item in a national newspaper caught my eye. Titled, “Aggressive foreign cows attacking British ramblers”, the article was accompanied by a photo of three sinister-looking black cows (ok, not so sinister, but as menacing as bovines with yellow tags in their ears are going to look) and warned of ramblers being attacked when the walkers enter fields where the cows are. Now, I think the last bit is significant. It’s not like the cows are menacing the high street in angry gangs, mooing in French and jostling shoppers. They’re in the fields and we’re invading their turf, so to speak.

Myself, I avoid livestock when wandering around the great British countryside, although I was cajoled into cuddling a gosling the other day down in Hampshire. But it does behoove walkers, when going into a space where livestock is present, to be the brighter of the two species. The NFU and the Ramblers Association provide good advice about walking safely with livestock. Please read it before you go out, and then heed the advice. It is terribly sad when there are reports of people who die by being trampled, and I don’t think it matters much to their grieving families whether it’s a domestic breed or an “aggressive” foreign cow.