Bull attacks

Google search "farm bull attacks"

There are videos.

And yes, some bulls would. Partly because they're scared, partly because they're clumsy, partly, with some, because they're mean.

Bulls with full horns or even partial can gore; they also trample.

Which breed, how familiar is the animal with the child, and is the child used to being around large animals? Is there a rodeo nearby with animals that are conditioned to charge people? The "bulls attack red" is more of an instinct to go after the motion. Many American breed bulls charge blind, meaning they put their heads down and charge in one direction. Other breeds (Brahma, IIRC) will charge with their eyes open, making a deliberate goring more possible. (Many years ago, there was actually an exhibition with a bull-figther from Spain who'd never been in a ring with this breed and nearly got killed because the bull spun on him.)

We had a short-horned (female) cow who would charge anything and anyone in eye-shot. Compare that to an unusually large Herford bull that was basically Ferdinand.

Basically, you're talking about an animal in the several hundred pound range with a lot of momentum. It can definitely do damage, even if it's not trying to.

(ETA: I disagree that bulls are clumsy. They're actually fairly dexterous, which is why cattle chutes can be so narrow. If you want a demonstration, look up the Mythbuster episode on "A Bull in a China Shop")

You want a ticked off Jersey bull, then. One that's escaped a cattle truck, is disoriented, especially by the sound of cars, doesn't know the terrain and may be sore from getting out of the trailer.

Cyia said:

(ETA: I disagree that bulls are clumsy. They're actually fairly dexterous, which is why cattle chutes can be so narrow. If you want a demonstration, look up the Mythbuster episode on "A Bull in a China Shop")

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I'm thinking about bulls in a playground with things like jungle gyms, etc. Cows don't see the way we do, so lots of times it takes them a while to focus, and they'll misjudge objects, heights and distances. They don't have great depth perception. Things with slats, or bars, can confuse and distract them, making them even more nervous. Their vision differences can render them clumsy, especially if they're scared.

I grew up on a farm with bulls. Very dangerous animal is a bull, very easily agitated. Most attacks happen when entering its territory - the field it is in, not so much when one has escaped. It will only attack when its escaped if you approach it, because its goal is always to get out in the open and not to be hemmed in by anything. In a playground it certainly would attack, feeling trapped amongst all the obstacles. When they escape, you shepherd it in a general direction from quite a distance - maybe 50-60 metres, and shouting so that it moves away from you. But its very hard to get it until it exhausts itself, and so moves slower. That can take all day following it around the countryside, losing it, trying to find it again.

The Song of the South has an excellent scene with a bull attack. But that is when the boy has entered its territory, not when it has escaped.

AW Admin said:

Google search "farm bull attacks"

There are videos.

And yes, some bulls would. Partly because they're scared, partly because they're clumsy, partly, with some, because they're mean.

Bulls with full horns or even partial can gore; they also trample.

Click to expand...

Google searches can be very annoying at times. I tried to look up no-fault worker's comp today and all the hits came back about no-fault auto insurance. Took a bit of trial and error to get what I wanted.

I played around with some search terms for dangerous bulls and found these interesting articles:

Cows Are Deadlier Than You Ever Knew

People know that bulls are dangerous, and it's true. When animal behaviorists analyzed 21 cases that occurred across a four-state area, they found that bulls were responsible for ten of the deaths. Cows were responsible for six deaths. What's really chilling is that, in five cases, people were killed by multiple cows in group attacks.

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Cows officially the most deadly large animals in Britain

According to figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 74 people have been killed by cows in the past 15 years.

Dogs, meanwhile, have killed 17 people in the last eight years, according to NHS figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph....

"As 70% of these deaths involved either a bull or newly calved cow, activities with these stock should be carefully planned," it said.

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Who knew?

I know it happened to you, and truth is stranger than fiction--- but you might consider what would attract the bull to the playground in the first place?

I live in rancher territory. Occasionally, cattle will get out. Mostly, they'll hang out and graze in the drainage ditches, because that's where the good green grass is when the rest of the area is brown and crispy. But they don't really set out to explore or travel; they just kind of mosey from one tasty patch of grass to the next patch of grass. Once I called in loose cattle to the local police, and hung around for about 20 minutes waiting for the responder to arrive. In that 20 minutes of waiting, the cattle probably didn't move 5 feet in any direction.

Another time, I was driving, and found a gate had been left open. The cattle were getting out, and you can imagine how bad it would be if one of them got hit by a vehicle going 75 mph. I called it in, but saw another truck had already stopped, so I turned around to pull over and help him. All we pretty much had to do was walk towards them, and they were quick to retreat back into their own territory.

A bull's not going to have that herd instinct to kick in, because they're generally kept alone, rather than in herds, like our steers, unless the rancher is trying for natural breeding, rather than AI. But it would be good to find a reason why the bull is in a bad mood--- like if he injured himself during his escape, as was proposed above--- and what would make him put forth the effort of going towards the playground in the first place, as animals generally tend to conserve their energy.

Cyia said:

You want a ticked off Jersey bull, then. One that's escaped a cattle truck, is disoriented, especially by the sound of cars, doesn't know the terrain and may be sore from getting out of the trailer.

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I've also heard that Jersey bulls can be particularly difficult animals. Of course the kid wouldn't likely know what breed it is. A large, brown "boy cow" might be their in-the-moment assessment. Even without horns (and I believe most are dehorned or polled varieties these days), they're large animals that can squish one like a bug.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ55nkwZ4eo

I've run into frustration with google searches too, generally because I don't know "how" to word a search, or there's something much more popular in terms of hits that uses the same terminology. The advanced search function "without the words" can help sometimes.

I googled leather dog leashes many years back, because I wanted to replace one my dog had chewed and the pet supply place I generally used at that time only had the "rope burn" nylon type. The first page that popped up featured numerous links to "creative" uses for leather dog leashes that didn't involve actual dogs...

Interestingly, this doesn't happen anymore. Maybe it's because google is more "interactive" now, meaning it spies on us and knows the kinds of sites we visit most often, so it knows I'm a dog person and not into other uses for said leashes.

If you Google "attacked by a bull" there are a number of hits, with video.

lonestarlibrarian said:

I live in rancher territory. Occasionally, cattle will get out. Mostly, they'll hang out and graze in the drainage ditches, because that's where the good green grass is when the rest of the area is brown and crispy. But they don't really set out to explore or travel; they just kind of mosey from one tasty patch of grass to the next patch of grass. Once I called in loose cattle to the local police, and hung around for about 20 minutes waiting for the responder to arrive. In that 20 minutes of waiting, the cattle probably didn't move 5 feet in any direction.

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That's only true when there's a group of them. If they're on their own or in a pair, then they wander looking for the others.

If a bull is kept in isolation, if they get out then they wander as well.

Being alone is stressful for the animals.

I've taken care of a guy who got gored (a large adult male patient, so a kid would likely have been killed). The steer (wasn't an intact bull and still attacked) had had its horns sort of sawed off at some point so it had stubs of horns not long pointy things. It got him in the side and ruptured his spleen without breaking the skin. The outside wound looked like someone had taken a sledge hammer to him. It also trampled and broke at least one of his femurs.

Any blunt force trauma that you want to imagine will be plausible