BS: Bullocks!

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 07:42 AM

Teribus made perfectly reasonable points that are worthy of reply.

Teribus came in a shat on a perfectly innocent thread that was posted as both light entertainment and a caution to others to be careful. His first post, thankfully removed, was full of malice and abuse, serving no purpose other than to engender bad feeling. Having had that route denied him he then decided to turn the same innocent thread into a full blown fight. His points are not worthy of reply because a reply would legitimise his blatant aggression towards others.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 07:33 AM

Such animals are not considered dangerous, and had they been left alone so would you have been.

Having once found myself surrounded by bullocks while walking a public footpath, I can assure you that they can approach (in this case from in front and from behind) without encouragement.

I don't think they are usually considered dangerous though. Obviously big enough to do damage to us without any effort but they seem to be motivated by curiosity.

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Stu
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 07:12 AM

" If there is a right of way over farmland stick to the path that is the right of way - you have right of way to cross the land not the right of access to do as you seem fit. You certainly do not scare livestock. You demonstrate the ability to quote your rights but refuse to accept that those rights come with attendant obligations and responsibilities."

I totally agree with this. However, farmers do put dangerous animals in fields with public footpaths in the full knowledge they could harm someone.

Also, the land thing. Nah, don't believe it. The land is a common treasury and we should all have access, as long we don't harm or interfere with anything. No harm in walking through ancient woodland owned by some farmer who just leaves it there; before the idiot humans came along and for the immense majority of time no-one owned the land, and they still don't.

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 05:44 AM

See what I mean? :-)

C'mon ake. Just you to go!

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 05:36 AM

*Yawn*

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Iains
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 05:29 AM

Well gnome, why on earth would I want to say anything on this thread.You are publicising your stupidity all on your ownsome. Most entertaining!

"From 2006 to 2011 the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) reported 56 cases in which members of the public were injured by cattle – eight of these incidents were fatal. Although there is a specific law which controls the keeping of bulls in fields with public access to them, this doesn't apply to cows and bullocks which can also sometimes behave aggressively.

Section 59 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 bans the keeping of bulls in fields crossed by a right of way, unless they are under the age of 10 months or not of a recognised dairy breed, provided they're accompanied by cows or heifers (young female cows). Recognised dairy breeds are Ayrshire, British Friesian, British Holstein, Dairy Shorthorn, Guernsey, Jersey and Kerry."

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 05:20 AM

Oh, hello Keith. What's the matter, no other arguments going so you thought you would stand on the sidelines and shout 'fight, fight' on this one? Just waiting for Iains and ake now and another thread will be totally fucked up.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 05:16 AM

Go and have a lie down, Teribus. You're having a terrible day. If you were in my classroom you'd get a hundred lines. Are your shares falling? Are they in Ryanair? Is that your problen?


(Watch this space...)

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Teribus
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 04:41 AM

Of course you do not think I am worth replying to Gnome, especially by you, primarily because you cannot answer, refute or challenge points made in the course of the discussion.

You and the members of the group you were in acted irresponsibly - yet somehow had anyone of you had been injured it would have been the farmer's fault?? - totally ludicrous as is the point about it being everybody else's responsibility to keep you and yours safe - it is NOT - that is YOUR responsibility.

The above by the way is not obnoxious it is merely stating the obvious by application of simple common sense.

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 04:23 AM

Teribus made perfectly reasonable points that are worthy of reply.
Why won't you?

Such animals are not considered dangerous, and had they been left alone so would you have been.

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 03:59 AM

You are blatantly just looking for an argument, Tezzer, but your attitude will do nothing but get another thread closed. Are you trying to set a record for the number of obnoxious posts that you can make before the moderators step in? You are just not worth replying to.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Teribus
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 03:37 AM

Not quite the scenario you described earlier Gnome:

"GnomeDotter #1 became enamoured of a very pretty young bullock in a field of about half a dozen others and managed to entice him over to have his snout rubbed" - Farm livestock is not supposed to be played with. Up until YOUR daughter started "enticing" there was no danger.

"In the meanwhile 2 of the others decided to investigate this either out of interest or because of perceived threat." - DUH?? Cattle are herd animals, what the hell did you think they were going to do?

"I knew from experience that becoming very large and moving quickly puts cattle off so I waved both arms in the air and made a noise which seemed to avert them from their intention." - Knew from experience eh? Pity you hadn't used that vast experience and knowledge of livestock earlier. But as I said the mental image is amusing. Were you wearing your sandals, shorts and Hawaiian shirt?

"Now, it doesn't matter what the bullocks intentions were but as they weigh a lot more than even me it could have been quite a catastrophic encounter had one of them collided with a slightly built human! - but it would have been entirely the fault of the slightly built human in the first place if what you have described is the truth.

"Moral of the story? Well, just be careful out there I suppose." - That and don't act like a prat.

"the farmer who has the right to graze his animals but also has the obligation to keep the right of way clear and free from danger."

Of course he has the right to graze his animals, it is after all HIS land. He IS obliged to maintain the right of way and keep it open - Where did you get the bit about keeping it free from danger from? Danger of what? Danger from what? Please tell us Gnome how on earth he can possibly or practically do that?

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 03:01 AM

If there is a right of way over farmland stick to the path that is the right of way - you have right of way to cross the land not the right of access to do as you seem fit.

Which is exactly what we did. Very close to a local beauty spot and where a lot of families go with their children. I am lucky enough to live near it but there are plenty of people from the surrounding cities who visit and may not be as wise to the potential dangers of young boisterous animals. I dread to think what could have happened if the bullocks had trampled a child.

You demonstrate the ability to quote your rights but refuse to accept that those rights come with attendant obligations and responsibilities.

That applies to everyone. Including the farmer who has the right to graze his animals but also has the obligation to keep the right of way clear and free from danger.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Teribus
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 02:00 AM

Wonder where those slums were in the countryside where our Country Dweller was brought up and spent the first ten years of his life?

1: If you should not be there - don't go there - you are trespassing. Next time you go "botanising" where you shouldn't My money's on the Bull.

2: A farmers livestock is not there for you, or your children's amusement.

3: If there is a right of way over farmland stick to the path that is the right of way - you have right of way to cross the land not the right of access to do as you seem fit. You certainly do not scare livestock. You demonstrate the ability to quote your rights but refuse to accept that those rights come with attendant obligations and responsibilities.

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Sep 17 - 06:57 PM

Spot on, Stu. Us country dwellers can tell these bloody townies a thing or three!

Fields are often regarded as factory floors. The extensive use of biocides has eliminated, in their minds, the need to rotate crops. We see awful practices such as planting maize, the most environmentally-unfriendly crop, on sloping ground. Then we have oilseed that requires huge chemical input and attracts every pest in the book. "Free-range" chickens in barns in their thousands with pop-holes that they're too scared to come out of. When we get a gentle east wind we have the worst stink of pigshit imaginable from the intensive pig unit (which means pigs that never see the light of day that produce flavourless pork) half a mile away. Poignant when you consider that pigs are clean, fastidious animals by nature. Huh. What nature. The Westcountry is probably the least offensive region in England when it comes to environmental vandalism by agriculture. But I haven't seen a greenfinch all summer and the barn owls we had round here for twenty years are long gone. Today I saw only the second comma butterfly of the year and only the second painted lady, hardly any small tortoiseshells either. Bloody farmers. Only making a living, eh? Only making a killing, more like.

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Stu
Date: 18 Sep 17 - 02:38 PM

I don't find playing with cattle very amusing, although as a country-dweller I do like to take photos of them when they stick their heads over the fence. They did eat my bloody Montbretias one year though, and I swear she was smiling as she swallowed the last one :-)

"the farmers are just making a living"

Don't deny that at all. It's just their claim to be guardians of the countryside is total, er, bullshit. They kill anything that they perceive to be a threat (1), and if it's not leave it(2).


(1) Any indigenous flora or fauna regardless of conservation status, vulnerability or anything else for that matter.

(2) Vast swathes of invasive plants (i.e. Himalayan Balsam, which farmers seem to love), rusting machinery, lots of rubber tyres, piles of junk, vast composting piles of remittances from the EU for their huge subsidies.

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Murpholly
Date: 18 Sep 17 - 05:27 AM

We are retired farmers and had our own Abeerdeen Angus bull who had been reared locally. He was very tame and easy going but we would never enter the same field as him without a stick. It is always better to be areful of large animals. And never enter a field with cows and calves whatever the breed unless you really know what you are doing.

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: JHW
Date: 18 Sep 17 - 05:05 AM

Always worth having a few quid handy in case a bull decides to charge you.
Bullocks though I reckon just gallop up for a laugh. I've walked walks (I do lots) where others arriving at tearoom tell me of their narrow escape yet I've had no bother through the same pack. Turn and face them and they'll stop. They are curious and will usually sidle right up and even give you a lick but raise a hand and they're off.
I always greet them.
Cows with calves are best circumvented.

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Gurney
Date: 18 Sep 17 - 01:58 AM

Well, Dave, don't walk into a field where a COW is examining her new-born calf.
Bullocks are mostly just inquisitive, but some of those new mums will try to kill you.
It wears off after a while.

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Sep 17 - 04:12 PM

You're not wrong, Stu. Country dweller speaking...

I was once charged by a bull at Malham Tarn. I really shouldn't have been in the field but I was botanising. I got away by climbing over a drystone wall that there is no way any man not in mortal fear of his life with bloodstream flooded with adrenaline could possibly have climbed over. I sort of fell off the top on the other side into a patch of thistles. That was the closest to death I've ever been. I did once get confronted by an extremely aggressive ram on top of Great Close Scar above Malham Tarn. I was supposed to be studying a patch of limestone pavement but I had to retreat rapidly. Odd thing was that half an hour later I tried again and the beast completely ignored me, deciding that eating grass was, after all, a far preferable pursuit to butting my gonads off.

Subject: RE: BS: Bullocks!
From: Stu
Date: 17 Sep 17 - 02:43 PM

Farmers don't give a shit abut rights of way or anything else that stops them making money and getting their hefty subsidies for destroying the ecology of our land.

Bullocks to the lot of 'em. 🐄

Subject: BS: Bullocks!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Sep 17 - 01:29 PM

We had a lovely walk out to the Bronte waterfall yesterday. What was it called before the Brontes were heard off you ask. Well, I don't know! Anyway, on the way back GnomeDotter #1 became enamoured of a very pretty young bullock in a field of about half a dozen others and managed to entice him over to have his snout rubbed. In the meanwhile 2 of the others decided to investigate this either out of interest or because of perceived threat. Gnomedotter #2 calls over that they were on their rapid way to us. Luckily, I knew from experience that becoming very large and moving quickly puts cattle off so I waved both arms in the air and made a noise which seemed to avert them from their intention. Whatever that was!

Now, it doesn't matter what the bullocks intentions were but as they weigh a lot more than even me it could have been quite a catastrophic encounter had one of them collided with a slightly built human! Moral of the story? Well, just be careful out there I suppose.

DtG