Those Nice Friendly Cattle

Those advocating the re-introduction of wild animals once common in this landscape- including even wolves - are sometimes told that this would be far too risky and shouldn't even be considered.

I believe that there have been no incidents of wolves attacking humans in Europe over recent years despite their presence in many parts of the continent. Meanwhile in America there have also been very few attacks. You have to be careful when searching because the information that comes back to you will be about incidents that have actually happened. The media and the internet do not tend to report what does not happen. Thus an attack in Alaska in 2011 got a lot of coverage. It turned out that some incidents involved animals which had been fed by by local people, not a good idea. A balanced view can be found here.

Meanwhile, in 'safe' local Sheffield fields ......*

From The Daily Telegraph

Runner escapes death after being trampled by herd of cattle during race. A fell runner escapes death after being attacked by a bull and then trampled by a herd of cattle during a race near Sheffield, South Yorks.

*The incident looks to have been quite nasty and actually happened very near by at Ringinglow at the top of the Limb Valley. The runner involved was from the Totley Athletics Club.

More......

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/countryside/10807620/Runner-escapes-death-after-being-trampled-by-herd-of-cattle-during-race.html

Previous incident:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/15/crushed-by-cow-experience

According to the Health & Safety Executive attacks by cows occur some 60 or so times a year. Each year people are killed. As someone who has never thought to be afraid of cows I don't say this to spread alarm. Simply to put the nonsense written about wild animals in perspective.

The very rare American incidents involving wolves should be seen alongside this article.