Via @AmbushPredator, from The Daily Mail:
For decades, a farming family’s herd of long-horned highland cattle have been a Peak District tourist attraction. The ‘gentle’ beasts had roamed Baslow Edge in Derbyshire since being introduced by the family and were admired by photographers and ramblers alike.
But now farmer Alex Birch has been forced to sell or slaughter the herd of 27 after a dog owner complained he felt threatened by one of the animals. The 32-year-old said the dog owner made a complaint to the Health and Safety Executive after a cow ‘pinned him against a wall’.
He said: "They claimed the cow went for his dog and the dog went to the human who protected the dog. The cow never hurt anyone but just approached the man. Anyone who knows about these cattle will know that, if you get in that close, it’s going to hurt you."
Dog walkers are asking for trouble near cattle, doesn't everybody know that? Maybe they should start printing reminders on dog food packaging.
I also feel threatened by cattle, which is why I give them a wide berth, it never occurred to me to contact Health & Safety.
Here's a link to the petition, now up to 20,000 signatures - please add yours!
A grim document
10 hours ago
4 comments:
Signed: I'm truly pissed off by the increasing number of times that the views of one brain-dead entitled smug self-important idiot are allowed to take priority over those of us (relatively) normal folk.
A pox on them all and a plague on all their houses!
if only the petition would do some good. I've signed it, but the first thing politicians learn about petitions is that they're completely without effect since people will sign them to avoid being seen as someone who won't (sign them).
I'm a dog owner and wouldn't dream of taking my dog anywhere near a bunch of half-ton (or better) herbivores which, by and large, don't like dogs.
I'd be happy to wager a modest tenner that the complainant is under the age of 40. It's a bit like knowing things like that you don't walk near a cliff edge, or sunbathe at the foot of a cliff. Either way you might get away with it, but then again you might not. And no one seems to teach Millennials these things which once, averagely intelligent humans took for granted.
Important, shall publicise.
To be fair, I think the HSE are not exactly 100% to blame here. A bit more info has been released, and it seems there have been more incidents than just one, and the HSE have said that they at no time demanded the cattle be removed, or threaten to prosecute the owner, merely were trying to come to some agreement with the owner how things could be made safer in the future. It appears that it has been the cattle owners decision to remove the cattle and sell them for slaughter.
https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/health-and-safety-executive-issues-statement-after-cows-slaughtered-at-derbyshire-farm-1-9643023
That being said, I suspect that the HSE were making considerable more hardnose noises in private to the farmer at the time than they admit to now in public, and I suspect (knowing the HSE) that any suggestions for ways of reducing the risk would either be totally impractical from a farming perspective, and/or very expensive. So while the HSE may not have 'ordered the cattle removed' they may have effectively left the farmer no choice.
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