A farmer has been ordered to pay out over £3,500 after a dog walker was thrown 8 feet into the air by a cow which then repeatedly trampled on him.
Steve Adams was on holiday with his wife Jane near Sidbury, East Devon in July 2021 when they went for a walk with their dog.
They were walking along a public footpath through a field containing cows with calves when one of the cows attacked, leaving Steve badly injured. He spent seven days in intensive care.
The farmer responsible for the cattle has been ordered to pay a fine and costs totalling more than £3,500.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation established that cattle with young calves were being kept in a field with a public right of way across it.
Cattle with young calves are known to be protective and unpredictable, and can pose a risk to walkers, especially to those with dogs.
Steve, who is now 63, said: “My own grandfather was a farmer, so I’d been around cattle as a child, and I wasn’t scared of them.
"Now, I wouldn’t go into a field with cows, you don’t know what’s going to happen. People should be very wary of cows.”
Steve and Jane were on holiday at the East Devon caravan and motorhome campsite in July 2021 when they decided to go for a walk with their dog, which was on a lead.
Their route took them from a pub through fields. As they headed towards a pedestrian gate at the edge of one of the fields, they came to an electric fence surrounding the fields edge.
They were then surrounded by more than 20 cattle, some with calves. A cow approached, lowered its head and tossed Steve into the air. It then trampled him on the ground until he managed to crawl away.
Steve said: “It was just the one cow, the biggest one. It came up and threw me into the air with its head and then it trod all over me. I was trying to crawl out of the way, but it just kept landing its hooves on me.
“The dog was on its lead and I’d managed to let it go and it made it away. My wife had one of those plastic ball throwers and she was hitting the cow with it but it made no difference at all. I managed to roll away from under it.
“I wasn’t feeling too good at all, I couldn’t breathe. It had taken us about 15 minutes to walk to where it happened, but it took us about two and half hours to make it back to the van.
"An ambulance was called to the site and they said straight away that I’d broken my ribs. It was a pretty scary day.
“I don’t walk too much now. I’m not as healthy as I was, and I can still feel my injuries now.”
Barry Fowler, of Sidbury, Sidmouth, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(2) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £555 and ordered to pay costs of £3,000 at Exeter Magistrates’ Court on 8 March 2023.
HSE inspector Simon Jones said: “The serious injuries to Mr Adams sustained when he has attacked and trampled by cattle with their calves was totally preventable.
“Farmers should not place cattle with calves in fields where members of the public have a legal right to walk unless appropriate measures are in place such as robust fencing separating cattle from people.
"Had Barry Fowler done this then the incident could not have happened.”
