I actually know people that have been killed by cows, well a Bull and indirectly know a person that was killed and eaten by pigs. My step Grandfather was pinned against a fence by our breeder bull and essentially crushed. He eventually died from his injuries. The bull weighed ~2400lbs…yeah that’s a tad lighter than a Toyota Corolla. The same bull, years later, yes they kept the bull, got angry at the younger bull that was being raised to replace him and picked him up and tossed him with his head. That bull was only ~1800lbs at the time. The younger bull landed in one of the feeding stalls, legs straight up. Had to drag him out with the tractor so he could get up.
A friend of friend type of thing, but they raised pigs. No one knows quite sure what happened but the farmer was in the pen and for some reason ended on the ground. Not sure if he had a medical issue, passed out or was knocked down and knocked out. Pigs ate him. Oddly enough apparently this happens way more often then one would like to believe.
Pigs are often used to get rid of bodies because they leave nothing at all.
I’ve had a huge bull rush at me and my dad when I was younger and we were lucky enough to get him to stop by throwing a huge rock right between his eyes. That was a very scary moment lol, but I gotta say I prefer being rushed by a bull then by a bear, which has also happened to me
I got away from a bull once, thankfully there was an electrical fence I dove over and the thing stopped. I was always amazed at how a single wire with electricity in it can stop a 2000lb plus animal. I was 12 at the time and returned a little while later with a BB gun and shot him in the nut sack…I figured that’s the least he deserved.
I also ended up a tree once because I was out in the field rounding up the cows for milking and happened upon a brand new born calf. Mommy was unhappy. Tractor was too far away so up a tree I went.
There’s a reason that farming is perennially in the top 10 most dangerous occupations. Heavy equipment and large animals make for dead people in many cases.
Those animals are HUGE. I don’t think people realize how large they are if you’ve not been around them. Our mature bulls reached ~6ft at the shoulders and weighed 2000-2500lbs. I’m only 5’8", yeah short…but even as an adult male that thing was a good 3-4inches taller than me and even as a fat adult 10X heavier. As a 12 YO kid they looked like mountains of meat and regularly just scared the living crap out of me.
Pigs are the same way. Everyone has this idea of some quite little piglet. Some of those things can be 4ft tall and weigh a 1000lbs…and they have no problem eating you. Pigs are evil.
When you get bulls/cows for the meat, it’s not unusual for them to get to this size. Farmers around here don’t want a bull that’s under 1500 pounds, no kidding.
I’ve had an uncle and an aunt almost be killed a few times by one of their bulls, or a mother cow trying to be protective of their calf out of nowhere, it ain’t pretty.
I understand that. I’ve been around beef cattle since I was a child, and owned them all my adult life (which is 40+ years at this point), and I don’t want a bull that’s under 2000 pounds at maturity.
It’s the 6’ at the shoulder part that I was asking about.
Holstein’s Bulls can get up to 6’+ Cows are typically closer to 5’. I just looked up the record tallest Holstein and it was 6’3". The one we had was near 6’.
I just looked up Chianina’s and they appear to be similar in size to Holsteins.
I didn’t think about dairy cattle. This used to be dairy country, so I’ve seen plenty of Holstein cows, but I don’t remember ever seeing a bull. I don’t know of any beef breeds (other than Chianina, which was hot for a while in the 1980’s but are rarely seen now) that routinely get that tall.
Typically won’t see the bulls in with Dairy cattle as the breeding is often fairly controlled. We would often do artificial insemination to try and get better cattle and when we did let the bull go do it’s thing it was typically with a selected group of cows. We always had a liquid nitrogen canister filled with sperm samples…that also functioned very well as a frog and salamander freezer
