If a cow starts charging at you, then you had better Moo-ve out of the way (sorry)! Ms Shirlie McKaskie didn’t though, and it might just lead to a very large compensation claim. Ms McKaskie suffered serious injury in 2003 as she was attacked by cows while walking across a field and is looking to claim up to £1 million after a judge ruled that farmer John Cameron was liable because he had not properly considered the risk of someone getting injured.
However, Mr Cameron is appealing the verdict of liability and clearly is not the only one who is disappointed with the judge’s decision. The vice chairman of the Royal Association of Dairy Farmers, David Cotton seemingly feels that the demands being placed on farmers are too onerous. He states that “The number of footpaths we’ve got across this country – and more and more access is being made available to walkers – it’s one of those situations that’s going to occur from time to time,”.
Not that we would recommend this approach. For such a potentially large payout, Ms McKaskie must have suffered particularly bad injuries, potentially life threatening and you would have to anticipate that her injuries will most likely have a continuing affect on her quality of life.
What is interesting following this is that it could set a precedent meaning farmers having to remove their cattle from fields in areas with public access. This is not the first incident recently. According to the BBC, a series of cattle attacks on walkers and their dogs have happened in recent months. Amongst those to suffer injury include former Home Secretary David Blunkett who was hit by a charging cow while out walking his guide dog in the Peak District.