Dog walker's warning after horror cow attack in field
Laura Vaughan was targeted by a huge Hereford cow while walking four-year-old cockapoo Zayna in the Wye Valley on April 6.
The colossal beast charged at Laura and headbutted her to the ground before repeatedly booting her in the leg and back in the 30-second-long attack.
The 51-year-old was left with a deep 'Nike tick' gash in her leg, two broken and displaced ribs and a punctured lung.
Laura Vaughan was targeted by a huge Hereford cow while walking four-year-old cockapoo Zayna in the Wye Valley (Image: Kennedy News and Media) It was only when a Good Samaritan passerby entered the field and distracted the belligerent bovine that the aerospace senior engineer was able to escape.
Other walkers helped Laura leave the field before patching her up with a first aid kit and calling 999.
An ambulance rushed the mum-of-two to hospital, where she had an x-ray and a CT scan and was admitted for four days.
A month on from her ordeal, Laura is now urging people not to walk through fields with cows in and always carry a first aid kit.
Laura, from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, said: "I'm very lucky to be alive.
"As I was walking through I noticed a cow was coming towards me then it just started running.
"I didn't have time to run otherwise I would have. As it was running towards me in my head I was like 'uh-oh it's going to hit me'.
"It headbutted me in the face and I don't really remember falling to the floor but at some point between it hitting me and me hitting the floor I let go of the dog, which saved her life.
"I remember being on the floor and getting kicked from side to side and thinking 'relax and roll over onto your side so she's kicking behind you, protect your face'.
"The cow kicked me in the back of the leg where the hoof went in, she gave me a good ole kick in my back, which broke the ribs and then I had other bruises.
"I got scared because at that point I thought 'if she doesn't stop in a minute I could be in real trouble here'.
"I'd seen these four guys coming in the opposite direction. I remember shouting 'help' and one of them came running onto the field scaring it off and that was it, it was over.
"They told me it lasted 10-30 seconds, it was quite quick. They said it was like something you see in a movie."
A keen walker, Laura regularly completes 10-mile treks in the countryside and has never had issues with cattle before.
Laura keeps Zayna on a short lead going through fields and said the pure-bred pooch walks silently at her heel when near cattle.
Following a route suggested by a walking app, Laura approached a large public field and spotted 50 cows, but no calves, dotted around in clusters.
Laura said the field had a string 'fence', around it that was approximately 2ft tall but as the gate to the field was open she walked into it - giving a wide berth to the cattle.
Sporty Laura, who regularly walks, does spin and pilates, said she was within 16ft of the cow and inadvertently came between her and her calf.
Laura said: "I've been on walks before where there'll be a sign up saying 'don't go in the field' because there's a bull or there are calves but there was no warning sign up.
"They'd put up string on wire poles, only a foot or two off the ground, in hindsight I think it was to block off the footpath, there was no way round.
"You had to go in the field and follow the footpath.
"I didn't notice any calves in the field and until this happened I didn't know how protective female cows are of their calves.
"Zayna was on a really short lead. She gets a bit scared around cows and horses so she walks on the lead right on my heel and doesn't bark.
"There were 50 cows in a huge field and they were all spread out with a few little clusters.
"If I'm ever walking near any animals, I try and walk around them or through them so that's what I was doing the best I could.
"I'd say the gap between me and the cows dropped to about five metres on either side [when it happened], I didn't notice the calf.
"Afterwards we found out one of the problems was the calf was on the other side so the cow was separated from her calf. Then it all happened quite quickly."
While dog Zayna was able to escape the onslaught, Laura was subjected to a brutal beating that only ended when the walkers scared the cow off.
After painfully shuffling off the field, Laura was whisked to Hereford County Hospital where she stayed for four days.
Laura said: "The guys helped me up. One was first aid trained so he knew what to do.
"He said we had to get out of the field because the cow was still there and the calf was still somewhere too. I was just in shock.
"They helped me get off the field, which was quite painful.
"The injury on my leg was in the shape of the Nike tick. If that had been my head, that would have killed me.
"If that man hadn't run on and made a noise and scared the cow off I think it would have kept kicking me.
"Hereford cows are really big and dangerous, they're half a ton, the mistake I made was thinking of them as sheep.
"You see sheep in the field with their young and walk through it all the time, cows are really different and much, much bigger."
A month on, Laura is healing well and is sharing her story so others avoid the same fate.
Laura said: "I didn't carry a first aid kit. My advice would be to always carry one, a spare phone [battery] pack and make sure the trail app transmits your location as well if you stay in the same spot for a long time.
"My advice would be don't ever walk through fields of cows. If you have to walk through, make sure there's lots of distance. If you see any young, definitely don't go in the field."
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