A BULL calf which escaped from a Bandon farm charged at two gardaí, and also threw a man up in the air, leaving him ‘pumping blood’ after he tried to get it off the public road, on a May morning last year.
The owner of the animal, Ronald Gill of Meelin, Bandon, had been charged with allowing his bull calf to wander on a public road, but he denied it at a recent sitting of Bandon District Court.
Gda Stephen O’Donoghue told the court that he was on mobile patrol in Bandon with a colleague on May 3rd last when they came across a black bull calf on the Bandon to Timoleague road at around 5.30am.
‘It was pitch dark and the calf was in the middle of the road across from a farm entrance. We got out and approached it but it appeared irate and put its head down and charged us,’ said Gda O’Donoghue.
‘My colleague was chased around the patrol car and struck by it, and I went into the ditch, while the calf headed off in the direction of Bandon.’
They returned to the farmhouse and met the defendant who said the animal was probably his.
Gda O’Donoghue said that he noticed similar livestock in the yard and there were no gates.
‘When we returned back to Roundhill at Old Chapel, the bull calf was in the middle of the road, was in an irate manner and proceeded to hit a number of cars,’ he added.
Gda O’Donoghue also said that it took Mr Gill over 45 minutes to eventually subdue the animal, while he himself had to move off the road and onto an embankment to protect himself.
Mr Gill, who represented himself, asked Gda O’Donoghue if he had ever received training on the handling of animals in Templemore.
‘Despite the animal being irate, you both still exited the patrol car,’ said Mr Gill.
However, Gda O’Donoghue said that they had a duty of care to the public to remove it from the road and admitted that his knowledge of livestock is limited.
Witness Gerard McCarthy told the court that he left his home to go to work at the Mercy Hospital in Cork city that morning at around 6.15am. When he came to Old Chapel he saw something black at the Roundhill Petrol Station.
‘I didn’t know what it was at first, and then I saw it move and I got out of my car and into the middle of the road to try and push it onto the grass verge,’ he said.
‘However, the minute I pushed him, he turned around and then I realised he was a full blooded animal. He then blew me up in the air and I smashed my head on the ground.’
He said he was then in and out of consciousness and was ‘pumping blood’. An approaching truck blew its horn and it drove the calf away from him. ‘If I hadn’t moved, I’d have been gone,’ he added.
‘I managed to drive back home, rang a colleague of mine at the Mercy Hospital to pick me up. I got seen to in the hospital then and was later discharged.’
Mr McCarthy said he feared that the calf could have attacked students who were coming off buses outside Bandon Grammar School that morning.
Mr Gill said his calf was seven weeks old, while Judge James McNulty remarked that maybe he was ‘big’ for his age.
Mr Gill said he did his best to control the calf but admitted that it wasn’t ‘behaving normally’ and was charging people. It may have had meningitis, he said.
‘He was not a mature bull and he is not a big violent animal, as is being portrayed. I’ve no idea how he got out as it was fenced. He was not himself and I had no way of knowing this could have happened,’ he said.
‘I didn’t allow him to wander and I’m especially sorry that a person got hit by it.’
Judge McNulty expressed the court’s concern that a bull calf was wandering around the public highway for 45 minutes at 6am on a May morning.
‘If Mr Gill didn’t have personnel to help him, he should have got some help, as it was a minor emergency. One was put at grave risk of injury while two gardaí had been charged by the bull calf,’ said Judge McNulty.
The court heard that the defendant has eight previous convictions, including permitting animal carcasses to remain unburied on his farm land.
Insp Kay O’Donoghue informed the court that the fines for such an offence date back to the days of schillings.
Judge McNulty convicted and fined Mr Gill €5 and told him it would have helped his case if he had brought in a vet who treats meningitis.
