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The Cute Animal Pics/Videos Thread


Caya

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I think the main difference is, we don't have public footpaths, at least not through farms.  We do have hiking trails, but they're generally on public land -- in parks, along roadways, on abandoned railroad right-of-ways, and the like -- whereas I have the impression that yours are more like public access easements across private property.

So, to more or less answer your question, if you get trampled by cows over here, it's because you were trespassing.

What the heck *is* that furry little critter -- a rabbit?

 

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It’s a cute pug from the first Kingsmen movie. As for cow trampling, the only other reason beyond what Carol said, would be if they escaped (which has happened a few times to the former neighbors behind my parents. Thankfully they only had a few cows and not a whole herd).

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I've been chased across a field by a herd of cows, it's terrifying, they really go for you. Loads of people have been horribly injured and even died because of it. 

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I assume you were following an approved public footpath?  Please forgive my ignorance, but are the farmers actually allowed to keep cows in fields that the public has access to?  And even if it's legal, are they really that foolish?  Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

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In Britain we have something called 'the right to roam.' It's a law that gives the public access to the countryside, and often includes routes through farm fields which are privately owned but the public are legally allowed to traverse. These are often little more than trails, so it's not really as straight forward as an approved public footpath. You never have access to all the fields though, so really any decent farmer would keep the cows elsewhere... but generally don't. 

It's illegal for farmers to keep certain cattle (mainly bullocks of a certain age) in those fields. However, they can still keep cows (including those with calfs, who are well known to get aggressive), younger bullocks, and a mix. A lot of the people who get attacked have dogs with them. There is also advice not to do anything stupid to provoke the cows. But I think a lot of that is, pardon the pun, bullsh*t. When we were almost attacked we didn't have a dog, and we were skirting the edge of the field. I'm not sure if they were bullocks just under the threshold or cows with horns but they watched us as we came into the field (a well travelled track), started to follow, sped up, and then went into a full on charge. The entire herd. I was maybe twelve, with my parents. We started running, I was screaming and pretty small so couldn't run that fast, and the cows were easily gaining. They got really, really close when my dad turned around, flung his arms out to the sides to make himself seem bigger and yelled at the top of his voice. It startled them enough for us to get to the other side of the field and over the gate. 

We had to cut through the same field later in the day to get back to where we were staying, and the cows had surrounded and trapped another family down the bottom of the field who had taken shelter in a small copse of trees. The entire herd was in a circle around them. I didn't have much thought about cows before then but I'm super wary now. 

I also recently came across an aggressive sheep. It's funny how you ignore things as harmless and get a horrible shock when they are suddenly not. 

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Just to add, it's not that rare, every year there are reports of people getting horribly injured and dying due to cattle. Exact stats are hard to come by, because the authorities like to downplay the extent of the problem. In The Independent it states;

'According to figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 74 people have been killed by cows in the past 15 years.' 

And notes a fair chunk of these are farm workers. However it misses out all the people who suffer horrific life altering injuries (shattered bones seem fairly common), and those who have more minor injuries. 

Grim. 

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Makes me want to rethink my "one of these days" interest in a British walking vacation.  I assume it'd be safer with a professional tour group, but where's the peace and quiet in that?

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Take a taser with you! 😆

As long as you're wary and try to skirt around cow fields you'd probably be okay.

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The cows that I met are mostly peaceful and mind their own business. 

I was in orientation to a natural outdoor organization, and one of the process of new member was enduring one week living in the wild doing multiple activities and survival stuffs. On the last night, we needed to walk alone through the jungle, cross the river, up and down the hills, in darkness, after deprived from food for three days (except things you could find in the wild), carrying a backpack weighted approximately 20kg, and we had to pass through a lot of posts. Post means 'seniors', each of them would give you a task, question, test, and almost all of them required us to give an '20s'. 20s as in 20 push-ups with backpack on the dirt or whatever ground we were in. Sometimes they required 3 X 20s.

These seniors were every member who wanted to participate. We had a lot of them 'torturing' us during the week, but the finale night was always the most interesting one, and some seniors were idiots who were not really active in the organization, only wanted to exercise their power on newbies when they had the chance. I encountered two of these, although I don't consider other's task as easy but personally think these two tasks are quite ridiculous and dangerous. One was sitting three-quarter submerged in the river, with all attires and backpack and had to hear this person preached about stupid stuff for half an hour at least (I think more). It was midnight and cold. We crossed the river, we swam etc so being wet and dirty are not a problem for me, but staying still half submerged is, because it wouldn't be good to your system. Luckily after all those exercises and crazy stuffs we did, we had developed somewhat super stamina and immunity that at least me and my team mates were fine, but I heard there were many others who fell sick. Although I'm not sure they were subjected to the same task because the seniors might assign specific task for each person, and I was one one of five other girls among maybe fifty of new members. So for sure, they remember each of us, at least the girls. For me, I found that I was always given extra tasks like I had to scale the cliffs for both boys and girls while nobody else was required too (although it was disclosed later that they purposely picked me for good reason).

Anyway, the other stupid task was, (it took me too long to get to this eh :P ) was, screaming on the ear of a cow. Yes, that idiot senior asked me to scream very closely, on top of my lung, to a cow, next it its face, on the ear. I guess I was too tired and no longer cared to think, I just did that. Three times, but each time I prepared to run, and I planned to run straight to that senior. I only needed to outrun him and kind of wish it would attack, but it wasn't.

Gah, sorry for the long story. Got carried away.... :cowdance:

 

Eta: 'scream' as in reporting,  like those military sort; name, team etc etc.

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Poor cow!  Minding its own business, and some idiot keeps screaming right in its ear.  :(

Not really calling you an idiot, by the way.  It was that senior member who was the idiot.  But the cow didn't know that.

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I think most of Europe has some kind of "right to roam" law (I know they have really permissive ones in Scandinavia, for instance), simply because there are so many people and only so much land - in Austria it's called Wegefreiheit (only found German links, sorry), "freedom of ways", and basically says that if it's a forest or a mountain, whoever owns it can only keep you out if they have a legal reason (like, trees are newly planted or there's acute danger of forest fires). So while lowland pastures are fenced in and you can't cross without special permission, many cows still get sent to alpine pastures in summer, and since this is also the season that sees the most mountain hiking, accidents occur regularly, including fatal ones every now and then. Cows are big and can have an attitude, especially with calves around, and public opinion seems to be that they got just as much of a right to enjoy the mountain air as the tourists, so it's mostly seen as one of the alpine risks, much like avalanches in winter (who rack up a death toll with regularity, too).

 

c3PT1bb.jpg

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I'm glad I live in a country where we don't have too many native scary animals. If we had mountain lions, bears etc I don't think I'd have the guts to go hiking at all. In comparison, even with our evil cows, our little island is very tame. There were a lot of adder bites recently, I'd like to see an adder, but they seem to get treated without much hoo-ha. 

I love this little snakey (an Indonesian autumn adder) could he look anymore like a dragon?! A dragon hatchling maybe. :smile: 

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This photo seems to be online in loads if different colours so I'm not sure which one is the original. 

Have you guys seem that horrifying video of a giant huntsman spider dragging a mouse up the side of a guys fridge? It just popped up again when I was looking for adder pics. Why, whhhhhy?!

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Because it's scaaaaaary!!!!

I was surprised to discover that there's quite a few "right to roam" type places along the Appalachian Trail. Whether it's intended to be that way, or whether the locals just thumb their noses at any restrictions on where their livestock roams, I don't know. But a friend and I got chased by a cow along the Trail once. Turns out, we were walking near her baby, hidden in a thicket. It was scaaaaaary. Other places you walk through and the cows act like you're not even there. And sometimes they'll crowd around, but they're just curious. (Fortunately that's only happened to me when I was on the other side of a fence.) Other times they'll see people and rather pointedly turn away. (How rude!) Them big critters are unpredictable. But I've never heard of anyone being trampled. Ew.

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Yes, that was an idiot senior, and I never found out who was it because he was standing in the dark, and I was too tired to pay attention to what he was wearing. I suppose he was one of those passive members who was not really active in the organization.

 

I'm quite surprised with the numbers. That makes it higher than sharks. See, there are many other animals more dangerous than sharks!

Moral of the story, if we see this: :cowdance: :cowdance: :cowdance: :cowdance: RUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNN

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If I saw a herd of cows line dancing on their hind legs I'd definitely run!

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You would?

I think I would bemesmerized and freeze until they trample me to death. I mean.. line dancing cows! How could you resist looking at that??

Screenshot_2018-05-13-05-46-24_1.jpg

 

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I'd be worried they were possessed or something. Maybe I'd watch through a hedge where they couldn't spot me.

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8 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Sure why not. If you promise to stay and watch.

tenor.gif?itemid=10189291

 

 

 

That's not a chicken, THAT'S A DUCK!!!  Sheesh, you people!  Can't tell the difference....

5 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

Guess the animal. 

ffc87db071abfd5e1d30fec6187a3f4d.jpg

Monkey?

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