Many years ago I was deer hunting on my friend’s farm in SE Ohio. We set out at 4:30 AM. I walked along with my flashlight and found a tree to stand under.
As the sun rose I noticed I was in the middle of a large cow pasture. There were probably a couple dozen cows in the pasture. A bunch of the cows were staring at me and some of them walked toward me very slowly. When a couple cows were about 100 feet from me I decided I had better leave. I walked toward a fence. As I was walking I could see a couple cows were picking up their pace. I got pretty nervous and decided to run toward the fence. I looked behind me and saw the two cows were now running toward me. I got over the fence in the nick of time.
Since that incident I have wondered: what would have happened to me if I hadn’t of made it to the fence? Would they have trampled me? Or would they have just stopped when they got to me?
[Moderator Note - This thread was started in the General Questions forum, and was moved to Comments on Cecil’s Columns/Staff Reports after becoming the topic of Cecil’s column here: How dangerous are cows? - The Straight Dope ]
It completely depends on the cow and the situation. Most cows are pretty docile but they will defend their territory if they sense an intruder on their turf. It is usually just a bluff to get you to leave. However, some bulls are aggressive and a few are REALLY aggressive and will charge, gore and trample you if they can catch you. I grew up around cows and the aggressive bulls were the only ones I ever worried about when out in the open. Any of them can hurt you badly in a confined area though just because of their size and strength.
Anything is possible. Cows kill about 20 people a year with bulls making up about half that number. Cows can also coordinate group attacks in some cases.
There is not a factual answer to that question, but have you considered that they might have thought you had something tasty to offer them to eat? It could be that they associate people with treat handouts. At any rate, domesticated animals like cows should be used to people and they could have just been curious to check you out closer. Get a good sniff and a better look. That’s probably a lot more likely than being trampled, although being trampled can’t be completely ruled out.
Do cows enjoy treats like (say) horses? I’m not a country boy, but I don’t remember ever seeing anyone give a cow an apple. And it would seem a little patronizing to offer them a tasty clump of grass, unless perhaps it was freshly imported Argentinian Bahia that they couldn’t access by, well, looking down.
When I lived in Laredo, I was cautioned by the locals to be very wary of long horn cattle. They won’t mess with a man on a horse or a motor vehicle, but are known to be aggressive to people on foot.
Here in the NE, I had a friend killed when he hit a cow while riding his motorcycle down a winding country road. So, if he were alive today, I guess he’d tell you that cows can be pretty damn dangerous.
I can assure you that offering a cow a clump of grass that’s outside their fence is warmly appreciated–sure, it’s basically identical to the clumps of grass inside the fence but to their way of thinking it’s completely different and much more tasty. I like cows, they tend to be pretty friendly and like to lick the salt off your hands, which is a little gross but amusing. They like their foreheads and ears scritched too.
If they saw you run, they probably thought you were running from something besides cows and decided they’d better get moving as well. Since there were two of them, it’s unlikely you were being chased by a bull. The only time cows (as opposed to bulls) acted threatening to me was when their calves were having their nads removed.
Cows are curious and humans running is something they probably don’t see all that often–you caught their interest. Best way to deal with farm animals is to be blandly uninteresting and acting like you know what you’re doing and belong there–they’ll usually believe you.
I have had the same thing happen when hunting. I won’t challenge a bull and try to avoid confrontations but most all the cows I have run across will back down if you lightly charge them. I guess the breed could make a difference but cows seem more into bluffing and are easily intimidated.
Ignorance fought. I think I like cows too, but I haven’t got to know very many.
If you think having salt licked off your hands is gross but amusing… in the Sierra Nevada, you might be disconcerted to find marmots watching you pee, and then scurry up to eat the vegetation that you peed on. Salt is precious up there.
When I was a kid (7 - 10 years old), I lived next door to a working farm which was owned and operated by my friend’s grandfather. As kids of that age, naturally the farm was a cool place to hang out.
In order to keep us busy (and out of trouble) he would give us chores from time to time. One of these chores was to move his herd of cattle from one pasture to another. The herd was only cows, as the bull was kept in a separate pasture until he was needed for mating duties.
The cows weren’t usually all that thrilled by the idea of moving away from one perfectly good (to them) patch of grass to another that might not be any better. They would get stubborn and sometimes would threaten to get aggressive.
Now, to an 8 year old boy armed only with a stick, a 2000 pound cow looking at you with mayhem in mind is not a whole lot of fun. But, I learned that the way to handle the situation was to face the cow squarely, looking it in the eye, and assuming a dominant attititude. “You’re just a stupid cow and you WILL do what I want you to do.” After about thirty seconds of this, the cow would lose interest and decide she really wanted to go to the next pasture anyhow, and what was all the fuss about?
Cows are herd animals and respond to dominance by going along. That is true especially of females. I would never have tried that with the bull.
Ha, yes. One of the bolder ones will amble over for some of that sweet, sweet other-side-of-the-fence grass, and next thing you know the whole herd is there. Cows are pretty cool.
Having said that, they are the leading cause of death by animal in the UK, but that’s mostly incidents with bulls and to a lesser extent cows with calves.
The last reference suggests that the modern meaning may derive from the opposite of what you suggest, that cows are passive and easily herded.
For what it’s worth “bully” does not derive from bull either, it’s one of those interesting words that drifted from a positive to negative meaning over the centuries.
Cows associate humans with food. Not as prey but as the providers of food. They will follow you to see if you are going to feed them, if you are going back to the barn, if you are moving them to another field with better food. Dairy cows need to be milked or it is painful for them, maybe a human in the field means we are getting milked early today.
Bulls can be territorial but most cows are not. Crafter Man the OP probably just got spooked for no reason. The cows just wanted to see want he had for them.
