A pair of ramblers spent nearly an hour trapped on top of a flimsy wooden stile when they found their path blocked on both sides by two angry bulls. Jennifer O'Malley and her partner Dave Alden were enjoying a Saturday afternoon ramble when they saw one of huge animals bearing down on them. They ran for the safety of the next field but when they climbed the stile they found a second bull blocking their way. Dave tried to make a run for it, but was butted back into the fence, suffering a painful cut to his wrist.
The petrified couple then decided to sit it out in the hope the menacing bulls would get bored and wander off. But neither showed any sign of backing down, leaving Jennifer and Dave marooned for 45 minutes in Altarnun, Cornwall. They eventually escaped by crawling sideways through a thick hedge between the fields, getting heavily scratched in the process. Dave filmed their ordeal on his mobile phone to warn others about the aggressive animals.
YouTube link.
Jennifer said afterwards that the couple had no choice but to claw their way through thick brambles to escape. She said: "It was nearly impenetrable and we got scratched to bits but it was the only option we had. I've never encountered anything like it. We think the bulls were trying to get to each other, but they were snorting, bellowing and pawing the ground and we were stuck in the middle with nowhere to go. It really was quite awful and so terrifying it's put me off walking." The couple have now complained to the police and local council about the animals.
Experts said the bulls were likely squaring up to fight one another - and the two ramblers were simply caught in the middle. The National Farmers' Union (NFU) said the worrying incident was "mercifully very, very, rare". Spokesman Ian Johnson said while most farmers take their responsibilities and obligations very seriously, things very occasionally can go wrong. He said: "We don't know the exact circumstances about how the bulls ended up in the fields, but what happened sounds pretty traumatic. I've seen and heard bulls bellowing at each other and I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that."
2 comments:
I certainly wouldn't mess with a bull.
It was filmed on his phone, could they not call someone? (providing they had coverage)
I wondered about calling someone, but as you say, they may not have had a signal, or indeed known exactly where they were.
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