Opinion: Hysteria about ‘killer cattle’ helps no one
© Tim Scrivener It normally takes a lot to get me riled, but sitting down with The Sunday Times recently, I was left gasping in disbelief at their magazine.
On the front cover was a group of dairy heifers and, printed underneath, the words “Natural Born Killers”.
Such tabloid-style scaremongering was enough to terrify anyone walking in the countryside.
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Inside, they’d printed a picture of a black-and-white cow with her markings rearranged to resemble a skull and crossbones.
The attendant sub-heading read, “Ramblers beware: there’s a new killer in the countryside”.
I know that cow attacks on people using footpaths are a serious and current issue, and people tragically have died when out walking.
But in treating this issue in such a hysterical way, The Sunday Times is doing neither farmers nor ramblers any good.
The article directed readers to a website called “Killer Cows”, encouraging people to report their concerns.
If they’ve had problems, this website advises finding a no-win, no-fee lawyer to sue the cattlekeeper.
All this engenders a level of intransigence that would make the late Ian Paisley blush, and I’m sure we’ve all encountered entitled hikers, puffed up with their rights and seemingly unencumbered by any of the attendant responsibilities.
That said, certain farmers do themselves no favours either.
It also makes one lament the loss of respect for this most special of domesticated beasts.
Quite apart from the benefits to soil and biodiversity, and their ability to turn grass into protein, cattle have been providing sustenance, clothing, fertiliser and draught power for humans for at least 10,000 years.
Thanks to cows, smallpox has been eradicated – don’t forget where the word “vaccine” actually comes from.
It’s bad enough having burping bovines scapegoated for the sins of the fossil fuel industry, without having them portrayed as murderous delinquents lurking round every corner.
On our farm, we have cows on fields with public footpaths, and put signs on gates explaining what they are doing and why they are there.
I have even offered to take people on “cow safaris” to overcome their fear of cattle, and describe what to do if they feel threatened.
We treat our cows with respect, so they don’t mind people. And they generally view dogs as rather gormless sub-bovine irrelevances.
I was troubled by a recent ruling where a walker was attacked and the HSE investigation concluded the farmer was negligent for keeping cows with calves on a field with a public footpath.
If that sets a precedent, then most of the beef producers I know are going to be in trouble. Fencing all these paths off would bury the suckler business, which is already marginal, to say the least.
The rambling fraternity seems to have become so zealous about its rights to use what were once essential byways for rural commuters as a leisure and dog walking playground that any mention of closing or moving a footpath gets its collective blood boiling.
If we could make it easier to temporarily re-route footpaths, that would be a very good start.
But unless we invest far more time and effort in education to counter this sort of polemic and overwrought hysteria, then we’re all going to be in trouble.