Thoughts On The Brentwood NH Bull Episode

Reading between the lines of this WMUR-TV report and it seems like this horrible story was SO CLOSE to ending peacefully. Alas, it did not.

For the first fifteen years of my life, I was brought up around Hereford beef cattle. This doesn't in any way qualify me to advise anyone one in the behavioral science of large animals but I am entitled to my opinion.

Whenever any of our cows would escape their fencing, the easiest way to calm them down and bring them back to the enclosure is with a grain bucket.

This is EXACTLY what the owner of these bulls was doing. It sounds like the bulls were following the grain bucket at a reasonable pace and were perfectly content letting the pick up truck lead them back home.

Once 'someone from a third party' grabbed one of the bulls by the horns, everything escalated quickly and in the most terrible way.

The expression, 'grabbing the bull by the horns', should only be an expression as this behavior ALWAYS elicits an angry reaction from EVERY bovine EVERY time.

The photo that I took of the bull for this article was clicked before a rodeo and I asked one of the handlers 'Would it be cool if I petted it?'. 'Noooooooooooo' was his reply.

Even though it was docile looking and LOOKED like it wanted to have it's nose rubbed down, that doesn't mean you should touch it. EVER. My years away from the barn had lulled me into a false sense of security.

It sounds to me like if everybody keep their hands to themselves last Saturday night, this whole unfortunate incident would never had to have happened.