Farmers Forum staff
ALMONTE — A cow and a bull claimed victory in separate attacks on humans last month.
Stittsville farmer and former Ontario Landowners Association president, Tom Black, was shellacked by his 14-year-old cow and ended up in the Almonte hospital with what he thought was a broken leg and sitting next to a guy who thought he broke his leg after being charged by a bull.
Both men shared their stories while waiting to see a doctor. “There was a bit of a giggle in between the pain,” Black recalled.
Black was attacked on Nov. 1 after breaking one of his own rules. Always walk near the animals with a something to defend yourself. Black noticed that his 14-year-old Charolais-cross was where he wanted her and began to wave his arms and shoo her into a new yard to load her for slaughter.
After being charged by one of his Charolais-cross cows Tom Black said he ended up in the emergency department comparing notes with a Semex employee who had been roughed up by a 600 lb. Holstein bull-calf.
She decided she wasn’t going and from 10-feet away turned on Black and charged him at full speed. She picked him right off the ground and he went flying. “I wish I had a video,” Black said. “I’d like to see the trajectory. I whacked my head on the ground. I got up and got on the tractor.”
He said the one-inch of well-composted dry crap on the ground was a good shock absorber. As for the cow, she ended up on a truck.
“She’s a hot-headed old lady but I got even,” Black said, adding that the cow is now hamburger.
The day after the accident, Black’s leg was so swollen he couldn’t walk. He went to the hospital on Nov. 3 where he met Dave.
Black was sitting in the hospital emergency department when Dave, who works for the Semex Alliance at Kemptville, hobbled in on crutches. He had been leading a 600 lb. Holstein bull-calf by a rope down a hall and suddenly something triggered the bull and it began hammering him into the wall, Black said he was told. “Someone came and rescued him.”
Semex Alliance did not respond to questions by press time.
