A 64-year-old farmer lost his life on Sunday after being charged by his bull. The tragedy occurred at the Griffaumont farm, in the town of Chiny.
According to the acting mayor of Chiny, Lisiane Malhage (whom we contacted and who herself got the information from the Gaume police zone), the victim was taking care of his heifers for milking in a field, in which he had arrived on a quad. It was then that he was charged by a bull that belonged to him but had jumped a fence. The beast should normally be in the nearby meadow.
Worried about not seeing her son return, the mother of the victim, a nonagenarian, called for help Michel Monnart, the breeder of the neighboring farm. The latter left with his son in search of the victim. It was already nightfall. They realized the bull was in the wrong field and that’s when they found the rancher in his 60s, killed near (or under) his quad: “He was wary of it and did not go into the meadow alone. For me he didn’t realize his bull was there and was surprised“, explained Michel Monnart. When he saw the bull in the meadow intended for the cows, he suspected that something had happened.
Alerted, the Luxembourg prosecutor’s office described the facts as “unfortunate accident“, stating that the case was closed.
Accident number 1 on farms
For Michel Monart, this type of accident is not so rare even if “farmers prefer not to talk too much about it”.
Problems with bulls are also the number 1 cause of accidents on the farm: “Along with scraps and machines, it is the most common according to statisticsexplains Frédéric Gastiny, coordinator at Preventagri. Human behavior is the most important factor. You have to be vigilant all the time. There are waiting pens to channel the cattle to load or unload them, but if you want to go and check that an animal is doing well, you have to go there and there can be this type of drama. It’s hard to go see a cow and always keep an eye out for the bull hanging around“.
The character of a bull sometimes changes when it reaches full sexual maturity and can become aggressive. When he is with heifers, the bull has the reflex to defend his herd.
You have to try to detect the signs of aggression and try never to be alone: ”I even recommend having a vehicle with you to have a fallback solution in case of load. And then you also have to select your cattle so that they are the least aggressive possible”recalls Frédéric Gastiny.