It’s an absolutely worrying, yet little known fact, that personal injuries caused by cattle are on the dramatic increase. Between 2000 and 2024, cattle and bulls were responsible for the deaths and injuries of countless people, making them the deadliest animals in America.
These fatalities often involved a bull attack, but attacks by cows are also surprisingly common. Those most frequent victims are when cattle attack a farmer or people working with or near cattle. Members of the public are also at risk with dog walkers seemingly in greater peril.
The frequent presence of cattle grazing around public footpaths and ramblers’ haunts make them a present danger to anyone who gets too close. Despite their image as lazy, lumbering creatures, the average cow can run at 17 mph, compared to the average human, who can only manage about 12 mph.
Cattle and Bulls are considered dangerous animals, and their owners can be strictly liable for injury for any attacks by their cattle if certain conditions are met. If a farmer’s cattle are grazing near a public footpath, a farmer has a duty to make any walkers aware of any known dangers which may be posed to them by the livestock. This can be done through signs or other warnings alerting any walkers to the dangers of cattle and other dangerous animals.
Walkers are entitled to be able to use public footpaths, and the footpaths should not be restricted in such a way that they can no longer be accessed by the public. Farmers and Ranchers should be aware of the dangers cattle can pose and so should keep their public liability insurance up to date. Most farmers are responsible and will have appropriate insurance in place to cover them in the event that one of their cows or bulls attacks a member of the public.
And for those who own, operate, manage, control, and allow dangerous animals to exist in dangerous situations, after repeated notice of prior attacks, to safeguard people, shall be held ‘strictly liable’ for the known dangers of allowing bulls to graze freely near people in a public park.
All of these cases are predicated on the legal concept of “Strict Liability” and in this new Insider Exclusive “Justice in America” Network TV Special, our investigating team is on location in San Francisco, with Walter H. (Skip) Walker, III – Mgr Ptr, at Walker, Hamilton, & Kearns, LLP, Clarissa E. Kearns, Ptr, and Jeffrey S. Walker, Ptr, and some of their clients who they successfully represented in some of their most recent cases involving dangerous cow and bull attacks.
One of their cases featured in this new Network TV Special, took place on the trail in the Round Valley Regional Preserve of the East Bay Regional Park District (Park District). The Park District, with 96,000 acres spread over 65 sites in the valleys and hills east of Oakland, is the largest urban park system in the country. But it is also home to about 10,000 freely grazing cattle, both to generate state revenues and suppress wildfires. But cattle and hikers are known to collide in the Park resulting in multiple serious injury-producing events each year.
Walker, Hamilton, & Kearns have earned the highest respect from citizens and lawyers alike…. as some of the best Trial lawyers in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay area and throughout California. They have built a substantial reputation by consistently winning cases other law firms have turned down, Because they believe to their core that “someone who has been harmed is someone who should be helped.” They have earned reputations as unyielding trial lawyers who repeatedly represent individuals and families. And repeatedly win.
You can reach firm at https://whk-law.com/attorney/walter-walker/ and 415 986 3339