Day 16 of NaNoWriMo
Have reached 30,000 words – half way through my target of 60,000 words for the month.
And in weird news from Malaysia:
A villager was savagely attacked from behind by a predator cow that almost ripped his hand off. He yelled, ‘Tiger, Tiger’ in panic before he realised what his assailant was. That’s right, a tame domestic cow. The poor fellow is still in hospital, with a savagely mangled hand.
A new variant of mad cow disease?
I won't be surprised if the villager did something to agitate the cow, but of course, he would not admit to it.
That was my first thought too, but I'm a farmer's daughter, brought up with cows. We had one really aggressive bad tempered animal I remember.
A cow's defence is to lower its head and charge. Just like a bull in a bullring, in fact. (Bulls don't bite either.)
I have a number of memories of racing across the field being chased by a cow with lowered head and two wicked looking horns aimed at my rear…but not bitten. Cows have teeth made for chewing grass, not ripping into enemies. In fact, I don't remember that they ever really hit us with their horns either. It was more bluff than anything.
That's a bit like "I was attacked by 12 large men" when in reality it was one small guy with a knife.
I do know cows can be a problem, but ripping off his arm?? A mad cow indeed.
If the farmer was holding a block of cattle salt lick in his hand and the cow was in desperate need then it may have mangled his hand to get to the salt.
I have never seen nor heard of a cow biting anything other than grass and fodder.
Apparently he was in intensive care for a day or two. He says he was using a parang to cut back undergrowth on an oilpalm estate and the cow attacked him from behind. Cows often graze in and around oil palm and are normally welcome.
I wonder if cows can get rabies from vampire bats? Hmmm.
Mind you, we don't actually have vampire bats in the Peninsula…