"It has been cultivated over seven centuries of farmers driving their herds to mountainside meadows in the summer. The animals’ hoofs firm the soil, their tongues gently groom the grasses and wildflowers. In the process, they continually sculpt verdant pastures — beloved backdrops for movies like 'The Sound of Music.' All that seemed at stake when a court in the western state of Tyrol found [a farmer named Reinhard] Pfurtscheller solely responsible for the [death of a German woman hiker who was trampled by his cows] and ordered him to pay more than $210,000 in damages to her widower and son, plus monthly restitution totaling $1,850. The 2019 decision shocked farmers, and not just in Neustift im Stubaital, a village of fewer than 5,000 inhabitants who live at the foot of a glacier promoted as the 'Kingdom of Snow.' As foreclosure on Pfurtscheller’s home and farm loomed, some farmers contemplated banning hikers from their land, a move that would cut off access to the Alps. Others threatened to stop taking their cows into the Alps altogether, a move that would allow nature to cut back in. Forests would soon begin to take over.... Governments quickly acted to keep cows on the pastures. State governors, federal ministers, even the Austrian chancellor spoke out in support of Pfurtscheller, a slender man of 62 who has been farming since he was 10. Last year, federal law was changed to block similar litigation.... "
From
"In the Alps, hikers on the trails and cows in the pasture make for perilous pairings" (WaPo).
It's dangerous to walk around cows! "Walkers in Britain, it seems, are killed by cows all the time," writes Bill Bryson in
"The Road to Little Dribbling":
Four people were fatally trampled in one eight-week period in 2009 alone. One of these unfortunates was a veterinarian out walking her dogs on the Pennine Way, another long-distance trail, in Yorkshire. This was a woman who understood animals and liked them, probably had treats for cows in her pocket—and they still trampled her. More recently, a retired university lecturer named Mike Porter was trampled to death by an angry herd—yes, angry—in a field near the Kennet and Avon Canal in Wiltshire, a place where I had been walking only the year before. “It looked like they wanted to kill him,” one eyewitness breathlessly told the Daily Telegraph. It was the fourth serious attack on walkers in five years just by this one herd.
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78 comments:
I love Bryson so much. Little Dribbling was a great idea: to revisit the walk of a past book. I felt, though, that we injected politics into this book at a rate slightly above my comfort level. It distracted me from how great his writing is on TRAVEL.
cows sound DANGEROUS!
i'm going hiking in Yellowstone Park next week
Thank GOD, there won't be any cattle there!
i'd hate to have to meet any,while hiking!!!
This was a woman who understood animals and liked them, probably had treats for cows in her pocket—and they still trampled her.
Bovine Antifa.
It's dangerous to walk around cows!
The farmer down the road from the Trapp family's place was killed from a crush by his Scottish Highlands.
Watch your step.
As one judge casually upends a system worked out over centuries, harming millions so that one family doesn't have to live with the real seat of responsibility for their personal tragedy.
It's all well and good that they passed the law so similar litigation can't recur, but the unlucky farmer is still on the hook for all that money, right?
If you're walking near cows and you aren't afraid, you're a fool.
It is especially dangerous if you have a dog with you. Walkers won their own are normally safe from cattle. I've had to leap into hedgerows of wild roses and brambles to get away from irate cattle in Ireland because they were enraged by my dog. My own fault, of course. Lesson learned.
Daniel
That's some mad cows over there. From the description one might think it a disease.
Some friends and I walked near 3 cows in Georgia. They stared at us, stood up, and peed like Niagara.
Eat Mor Chiken!
"One of these unfortunates was a veterinarian out walking her dogs on the Pennine Way, another long-distance trail, in Yorkshire. This was a woman who understood animals and liked them, probably had treats for cows in her pocket—and they still trampled her."
Those ingrates.
Ted, Ted Knight, do you have anything to add?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvuAyhy6gZk
Cow Week on National Geographic......Maybe a movie where the greedy mayor of an Alpine village suppresses all news of a herd of hunter-killer cows in order to keep the tourist bucks flowing.....What cows have working for them are those soft brown eyes. They do not look like killing machines, but there's nothing they would like better than to trammel you underfoot. Cows are sacred animals to Hindus. Kamala has soft brown eyes. Perhaps one shouldn't politicize cow tramplings, but there's a connection.
"Walkers in Britain, it seems, are killed by cows all the time,"
IOW, cows are more dangerous to healthy adults than WuFlu. I recommend a total lockdown. If they only save one life!
This sounds like one of those Law & Economics externality problems contemplated by the Coase Theorem. If certain assumptions hold, in reality a big "if", it shouldn't matter which party is held liable.
Thoughts on Teaching the Coase Theorem
Every year I attempt to teach students the Coase theorem, and devise some new question to test their understanding of it. Every year I fail to communicate Coase's ideas.
In The Problem of Social Cost, Ronald Coase argues that the outcome is "the same whether or not the cattle-raiser is held responsible for the crop damage brought about by his cattle". As long as it is clear who is liable for the crop damage, and there are no costs of negotiating a settlement, "the ultimate result (which maximises the value of production) is independent of the legal position".
In other words, it doesn't matter who is responsible for building the fence, as long as the cost of the fence is less than the cost of the crop damage, the fence will be built - and in the least costly fashion.
Were calves in the herd? If so, that is the reason for the cows to become upset.
The Austrian was a slender man so he must be sympathetic.
These "tourists" need to learn that Nature is not a petting zoo or a Disney movie with cute little cartoon critters who love you. Animals are not tame pets. Animals don't like to be approached. Wild animals like Moose, Bears, Deer, Birds, Squirrels etc.....are not there for your amusement and to pet.
Approach all animals....even COWS with caution. Your good intentions don't matter.
Dopes.
We don't call them Tourons (aka morons) for nothing.
It's dangerous to walk around cows!
No it's not. People in the UK as likely to be killed by lightning as by cows - about 5 per year. Same goes for wasps & bees.
My dad used to sing me this song:
Little Joe the Wrangler
Cows are dangerous. But they taste good.
I love Bryson on the subject of how many things out there are trying to kill us. He is really fascinated by this idea, and it shows up in all of his books. His book on Australia is his best, in my opinion, because it is his most cheerful. I wonder if that's because (as he points out) there are more things trying to kill you in Australia than anywhere else?
Austrian farmers will not be cowed.
An idiot woman had her husband take her photo standing with a buffalo on Catalina. It butted her. So almost all buffalo were removed from the island. They had been there since a movie was made there in the 1920s.
Idiots and wildlife.
Don't be cowed.
This brings to mind the cow tipping myth. I realize it's intended to be a joke upon naive suburban and city dwellers, but I wonder if and how many people this joke has killed.
Cows are very massive (they often weigh about as much as a compact car) and very strong animals who can run much faster than you can. And they are also normally very gentle and respectful of human beings -- and that is an amazing situation, really how did that happen? -- but still they could kill you in a moment if they wanted to.
I once had once out walking at twilight and the path was blocked by a herd of grazing cows. I felt uncomfortable threading my way through the herd, and was especially leery of being kicked if I walked behind the cows. So i left the path, and took the long way round them. I felt like a coward, but this news makes me feel better.
Buffalo injure people all the time in Yellowstone. When we went as a small kid, I loved to get just inside the fence, and then jumping back when the Buffalo charged. But my Mother soon put a stop to it. Moms can be wet blankets.
If she was an FKK hiker that might explain why the cows took action.
There are several state parks in No. Calif. where cows are allowed to graze the land and signs are posted that cows are free to roam there and not to get too near them. Many times I've run into them on or near the trail. If there's a calf with them I would hike well out of my way and off trail to get around them. They're huge, and a bit scary up close.
Thankfully, they all just stood where they were and watched me hike around them. In my new home state I haven't seen any cows free roaming in state parks so far.
So the Austrian government granted herd immunity. Cool!
The animals’ hoofs firm the soil, their tongues gently groom the grasses and wildflowers
Man, that's hot.
In America Cowboys beat the Indians every time . But Swiss mountain meadows ain’t our problem. They are a NATO issue.
Dammit..."he" not "we"
An average of twenty Americans are killed every year by cows. CDC reports none of them were wearing masks. Nor were the cows. Coincidence or Covid related? WHO'll be the judge?
More recently, a retired university lecturer named Mike Porter was trampled to death by an angry herd—yes, angry—...
Mad cows & Englishmen.
Cows, when they have their heads down, have a great field of vision, but it's monocular, with a good sense of movement, as befits a herbivore, but a bad depth perception and a blurry field.
All of which means they spook easy.
Sounds like Darwin's Law remains in effect.
Olympic Wrestling Gold Medalist Rulon Gardner grew up on a dairy farm. When asked after his medal win how he got so strong he said it was from pushing cows, and that if the cow doesn't want to be moved, even he couldn't move them.
And of course, moose bites can be very serious, too.
If you truly understand animals, you don't carry treats for the ones that weight half a ton or more that can get pushy and dangerous if you are perceived as a threat.
120 million visitors per year is 2.3 million visitors per week, including all the wintry weeks. The story stretches back six years, so you'd have about 720 million total visitors, which is one visit each for the entire population of Europe. They identified three deaths, the last one three years ago. So it seem like someone wanted a vacation in Austria, and found a story to justify it.
I believe a lot of our public policies would be improved if more people had a better connection to the land, agriculture, and ranching.
If you hike through a pasture, you need to be aware of what animals are in the pasture and what kind of threat they might pose. Horses are generally safe to be around, but that's not true of stallions. When I was in high school, a neighbor had a stallion that he used for breeding. You did NOT want to be in the same pasture with that horse! He would charge and trample you if he could. Same is true for many bulls. They can be, and often are, mean. You didn't even want to cross the pasture of my father's prize ram. (Who's afraid of a sheep? You should be.) Even our milking goats would butt strangers walking among them.
My point is that this is the nature of such animals and there's precious little their owners can do to change their nature. Insisting that the owners be financial liable for any damages a stranger suffers while crossing a pasture is unfair. It's like making them responsible for the mud on your dress because you slipped and fell in the rain while walking on their land. Grass is slippery when wet and farm animals sometimes charge people. Insisting owners take 'reasonable steps' to prevent such things is like requiring them to keep the sun from rising. They cannot keep the sun from rising and they cannot keep their animals from attacking strangers. All they can do is erect very tall fences to keep people out of the pastures.
When around buffalo I always carry a box or Oreo cookies, a tip that I got from reading about the filming of Dances with Wolves:
"...Cody was a buffalo that would come to Oreo cookies...Cody`s fondness for Oreos made him a natural for the scene where a buffalo charges a stranded Indian youth. Although it looks like he`s headed straight for the kid, the beast was in fact charging a pile of cookies."
"120 million tourists"
That is such a depressing number. Ugh.
Apparently mosquitos are the most dangerous creature to humans, since they transmit many diseases such as malaria and the Zika virus.
Approximately 22 people are killed by cows each year.
An average number of 62 people are killed annually by anaphylactic shock due to stings from hornets, bees and wasps.
Hippos and elephants each kill about 500 people per year as well. Per "Statista".
As a young teen, I spent a couple of summers on a smallish cattle farm. Those cows were usually very docile, although after spending a day in the pasture they would break into a trot coming in for the evening feeding. I thought it best to not try to get them to line up, single file. It was also very important to get a fix on the bull before going into the pasture.
Being intentionally trampled by a herd seems unlikely to me, but an angry bull is another story.
I blame Walt Disney.
I don't have to outrun the cow. I only have to outrun you.
Killer Tyrolean Cows is a swell band name.
Yep, long ago bought a book on Walking Trails on Dingle Peninsula and took a hike. I was surprise that the well-denoted trail went through a cow pasture,just feet from the cliffs over the ocean. The cows started to follow us and I realized that we needed to get out of there. Walked around the pastures after that. I am afraid of animals that are bigger than I am, including elk, buffalo, cows, horses, and grizzly bears.
As to Yellowstone, that is definitely Darwin Award territory. Been there three times and am always impressed by the incredible stupidity of "educated" people with cameras.
BEWARE!!!!!! Killer COWSSSSSssssssssssssssssssssssssss111
"And of course, moose bites can be very serious, too."
Yes. A moose once bit my sister.
"I don't have to outrun the cow. I only have to outrun you."
They're not looking for food. They're trampling everything as they run and keep running. It's hopeless.
They're not looking for food. They're trampling everything as they run and keep running. It's hopeless.
No, that just means you need to get out of their path
Heck, climb a tree. Cows don't do that. And if the tree is sturdy enough to hold you, it's sturdy enough that the cows will run around it
I was around cows all my childhood. I never had one charge. I stayed out of the way of bulls. My sister & I would literally walk through the herd going to the fishing pond when we were 8 & 6. I don't get it.
Florida has breeding cows and the calves get shipped somewhere else to graze before the feedlots. Before shipping they clip the bull calves. I went to visit some friends living on a lake in the middle of a cow operation. Gate was locked so I walked across a pasture. Bunch of cows in the distance started galloping? towards me. Hey they're happy to see me. At some point panic set in and there was a punk tree I climbed. Funny it was in the middle of the pasture and young...older punk trees dont have low branches. They planted all these Australian punk trees around Tampa because they soak up water. They were everywhere. Last 50 years everybody started cutting them down so there aren't as many. Anyway it was calves leading the charge and after a while they wandered off. I assume clipping time was near.
"They're trampling everything as they run and keep running."
Cows can stop very quickly. I know this from personal experience. I've been around running cows quite a few times. I suspect that if something living gets trampled it's because the cow wanted to trample it.
As someone earlier pointed out, you shouldn't bring a dog with you if you are out walking among cows, or even more if they are bulls, as they will try to kill the dog.
Once I was out late at night, my dog was with me, when a cow -- I didn't know it was there -- came running full out straight towards me. I didn't have time to react but at the last moment it swerved around me, passing so close I could feel the air of it's passage. It was after my dog and fortunately my dog was faster.
I've hiked all over the Swiss alps and walked through many a high mountain pasture with grazing cows. A certain amount of caution is advisable. I suspect that the people who have had problems have not been good at reading the situation. The only time I ever had to do a big detour was once when I was crossing a steep, high altitude, rocky incline. An adult Ibex with a decent set of horns was standing just above the trail in front of me. One flick of his head and I would have fallen 1,000 feet. He wasn't moving, so I backtracked and found a lower trail to get around him.
I had the experience of having cows walk over my tent when I was camping with the Campfire Girls. Fortunately we were by the campfire. We started yelling at them but they just kept walking over the tent to the stream pretty much destroying it and our sleeping bags. My canteen was severely dented.
ya think maybe that's why farmers put fences around their pastures. To keep you safe from the cows.
I don't get it.
Not much to get. Cows aren't very dangerous, so very few people are killed or hurt by them despite millions of cows and millions of people. I used to chase cattle when I went running in the desert in Arizona.
Buffalo injure people all the time in Yellowstone. When we went as a small kid, I loved to get just inside the fence, and then jumping back when the Buffalo charged. But my Mother soon put a stop to it. Moms can be wet blankets.
Calvin, is that you?
“ Blogger William said...
Cow Week on National Geographic......Maybe a movie where the greedy mayor of an Alpine village suppresses all news of a herd of hunter-killer cows in order to keep the tourist bucks flowing.”
No, this was no sledding accident!!
What rwnutjob said. If someone was trampled by cows, the cows weren't of the domesticated dairy breeds, Holstein, Jersey, Guernsey, etc.
Bulls are another story, but they won't trample you, they will beat the hell out of you with their heads. I suspect bulls are responsible for the 22 deaths by "cow" every year in the US.
There are no treats for cows. The treats are at their feet.
And, yes, cow tipping is a myth. The cow will run away before you can lay a hand on her.
“ AM
Blogger mikee said...
And of course, moose bites can be very serious, too.“
A Møøse once bit my sister... No realli! She was Karving her initials on the møøse with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink".
What the hell would you do if some predator that eats your kind by the millions happened to walk into your back yard? She probably had steak sauce in her pocket.
“ Blogger JAORE said...
Killer Tyrolean Cows is a swell band name.”
I think I saw them open for the Cowboy Junkies.
Should I have guilt over a chuckle or two while reading this? I kinda think I should... Huh.
Cows can stop very quickly. I know this from personal experience. I've been around running cows quite a few times. I suspect that if something living gets trampled it's because the cow wanted to trample it
MythBusters tested the myth of the bull in the china shop and found it false. The bull very delicately walked around the aisles without jostling a single thing.
Cow chase leads to helicopter rescue of California couple
A confrontation between an elderly couple and a cow and her calf required the intervention of the California Highway Patrol in Northern California this weekend.
Authorities said on Facebook that the unidentified couple had fallen to the ground after a cow gave chase to them in the Lynch Canyon Regional Park. They were hoisted into a helicopter to elude the angry bovine.
In a minutes-long video taken by highway patrol mid-air, a cow and calf are seen standing feet away from the couple on the barren trail. As the chopper hovers above the site, the cow is seen rearing its head and bellowing, while the calf stands nearby.
Highway patrol succeeded in moving the cow by sounding the helicopter’s alarm, CHP wrote in a Facebook post.
Officials lifted the couple 75 feet (22.8 meters) into the air and transported them to a hospital to treat their injuries. There was no word on what happened to the mother cow or her calf.
Greuzi !!!!
Wish I knew how to post a cow picture or two here. For the past 35 years I've been hiking the alps, often hosting/guiding small groups(mostly Berner Oberland). It's heaven, cows and all. As noted in previous "comments", avoid young ones, Never take a dog and don't freak out the beasts with sudden movements. If you appear non-threatening, cows may approach just to check you out or follow to see where you're going..
My first encounter involved a herd of 25 or 30 standing closely together in a small meadow. No way to go around and get back on the trail. Stood there about 20 minutes wondering if I knew a damn thing about cows. BLANK. I was alone on a barely used trail and the weather was wettish. The urge to see what's farther-on is strong. Took a good while to slowly push and shove my way though. Only downside was stepping in millions of piles of fresh poop. Last laugh to the cows :-)
"Wildlife" wasn't finished with me that day. The trail later became a muddy two-foot notch in a near vertical landscape and I hadn't seen another human for hours. Stupidity clearly had a hold of me. I did not care. Hiking solo can be a spiritual experience and doing a hard thing, exhilarating... Then around a bend in the route I spy a dozen very small goats hopping and scrambling about. They stopped and turned to stare at me. Perhaps their way of saying "wanna' play?" I knew these to be curious and friendly creatures but there was something about the scene that made me wonder if we were all part of a Far Side cartoon. Were the little things planning some prank that would amuse them and send me off to another spiritual experience, entirely. Long backtracks suck but like the man sang... You gotta know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. Later back on flatter earth, stumbled on a sidewalk crack and fell hard. Was taking pictures of a church at the time.
Slap on the wrist from the Big Guy, maybe.
Best shot at Sudden Death in Switzerland, is short-cutting off trail. That sparkling green grass is wet much of the time and one slip can launch you on the last adventure of your life. Never seems to make the local paper.
Still hoping Americans are allowed entry by early September.
I wonder what their beef was.
If you will allow me, I will tell another story from my hiking diary with cows... In Sunol Wilderness which I told you about in the post above..okay without naming it was where I was hiking a lot when training for an upcoming backpacking, back-country hike in Yoasemite NP. One morning about 4 A.M. a friend and I met to hike up to Mission Peak fully loaded with our backpacks for a long haul high country backpacking trip. We hiked up without seeing one cow. Sunol Wilderness was famous for having free roaming cows on the land back then. I do not know if it is the same but then it was. Coming down we ran into a herd of cows and calves on the trail. SHE my friend, TOTALLY FREAKED OUT! I knew she had a fear of cows before the hike, but I had no idea she was this freaked out. SHE WAS IN FULL PANIC MODE! I thought we'd be okay walking on the trail to get past them, but she insisted on going up off trail a mile out of the way to get around them. In this instance I thought it was over kill her freak out, but to keep her calm and safe I agreed to hike way up hill and around the cows. WE made it out and to our cars safely. Another hike to Mission Peak successfully accomplished. Later that week I met up with another friend who grew ranching and raising cows. She's terrified of cows! She related many terrifying tales dealing cows. Let me tell you...I've been counting my blessings since. I think my freaked out friend with a crazy fear of cows had it right and I am here to day because we hiked a mile and half up, over, and around the cows in Sunol Wilderness. I haven't been able to see cows as docile, mild animals since.
Cownado.
Cownado,two: a Second Helping.
Cownado,three: The Steaks Just Got Higher.
Cownado,four: Now, It's a Party! (etc.)
We have lost our ancestral memories of the aurochs.
Raised a small herd of cattle for about 10 years, and lived next to a dairy farm with a herd of about 100 cows. That said, any large livestock can be dangerous. They are big, strong, and react by instinct. Same goes for horses. My neighbor had to shoot a cow once upon a time that tried to trample him and his son while they were trying to attend to her calf. They didn't want to, they knew the cow was just being protective. But it was going to kill them otherwise.
I was told that the predominant number of deaths of herdsmen/women was actually caused by rams. Small flocks are often owned by women, and the rams can be unpredictably dangerous. They'll literally ram you and take you to the ground, usually breaking a hip or knee, so you can't get back up. Then they really go to work. Yes, those fluffy sheep.
I've run from cows in Georgia. Could have been bad. City people can be idiots.
Last year I fulfilled a bucket list item and visited the Normandy Beaches as part of a D-Day tour. One of the stops included the field at Brecourt Manor where Easy Company took out the four German artillery pieces. Our guide led us into a corner of the field, opposite a small herd of cows. As he was speaking the cows started ambling our direction. They gathered on the other side of our guide, as if they hadn't heard the spiel many times before. They weren't threatening, but if you haven't been on a farm for awhile you can kind of forget just how big a cow can be. I wouldn't want to annoy one, let alone a dozen. The only danger we were in that day, however, was from "land mines" as we exited the field.
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