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Western Nebraska Man Dies After Attack By Bull

Soapweed

Well-known member
(Neb.)-Western Nebraska Man Dies After Attack By Bull

By: Genell Rothleutner Posted at: 06/11/2008 09:58 AM


GERING, Neb. (AP) - A 61-year-old Gering man is dead after being attacked by a bull.

Scotts Bluff County Sheriff's officials say the attack happened Monday evening, when the bull rushed Chuck Gehl and pushed him into a barbed-wire fence.

Sheriff's officials say Gehl was rushed to Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff, where he died of his injuries early Tuesday morning.
 

WyomingRancher

Well-known member
Oh, that's awful :( . Bulls are incredibly dangerous animals, and I never trust them or turn my back on them, no matter how gentle I think they are.

If I misjudge when to cull a bull, and I get one who's hard to handle and on the fight, I call the mobile butcher service. Life is WAY to short to mess with an unruly bull. However in the past, the reason they become unruly was because I messed up handling them (unless they were sick/injured). Luckily I haven't had to call the butcher for several years :D , but wouldn't hesitate to if a bull deserved to be shot :wink: . I know plenty of people who can use hamburger :D .

When gathering cattle, I tell people helping, if a bull gets on the fight, LEAVE HIM ALONE!!! If somebody is going to screw a bull up, I'd rather it be my mistake :? . The wrong people handling a bull can really create extra work for later handling, especially if you work alone. The key is figuring out how far to push a bull, and quiting before he gets upset and learns just all he can get away with :wink: .

I took extra bulls to the forest this year since water is plentiful, and cows likely won't be congregating at the same few water sources this summer. I hope I can get them all home since some of them are on the edge of getting questionable to handle :? . Probably if they are handy to gather in a few weeks, I will try to bring them home before they quit the cows. I try to look for opportunities to make it easier :wink: .
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
Were around hooky rodeo bulls all spring and summer and get by just fine because we RESPECT them. It's the chop pail barnyard pets that kill most people-if I want to scratch somethings ears I have a fat old Beagle.
 

George

Well-known member
When I was in highschool ( the early 60s ) our FFA group took a field trip to a Dairy farm and the owner climbed a fence to scratch the ears of his pride Holstien bull ( I believe he had been raised on the farm ). Up on return to the class room the instructor ( Mr. Telfor ) did his best to impress on each of us how dangerous that was and not to trust any bull to that extent.

About two weeks later the bull killed his owner! No one was around and we do not know if it was an accident or if the bull was just in a foul mood that day.

I feel I have a great love of my animals but still have a stronger respect for them. Of course I'm not that old ( only 60 ) but I see a lot of the people who have animals have no clue as to what the dangers are.

I had a bull about 15 years ago that was so used to moving to different pastures that you only needed to pull a trailer into the pasture and he would come and load up when you opened the door. I normally had rubber pans of sweet feed in the trailer when we showed up. One day I had not put them in so I pulled in the field and opened the door as the cattle were across the creek and was putting the feed in the trailer when the bull showed up and came in the trailer with me. This was about an 1,800# angus who saw me between him and sweet feed - - - before I knew what happened I was bounced off the roof of the trailer, over the bulls back and out the back door. The bull was the only thing in the trailer and I closed the door and never saw him again after that day. This was not his fault I had let him get to comfortable with people but I felt he had become dangerous as I had allowed him to loose any respect for humans. If not for the help of our good Lord I could have ended up dead and no one would have known what happened - - - totally my fault but you have to respect their power.
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
All this good advice applies to cows too,had one or two after my skinny ass more than once,be careful around any animal that large.............good luck
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
Back in the 1970's, a respected Hereford breeder from this area was out checking his cattle. This man was born about the turn of the century, so he would also have been about in his 70's when this incident occurred. He was admiring a new bull that he had recently purchased, and the bull took him, getting him down. This older rancher had the presence of mind to poke both of the bulls eyes with his point fingers. The bull was temporarily distracted enough from pain to allow the man to get up and get away.

Back five or six years ago, we had been talking of this incident. A few days later, Peach was walking through some pairs when a cow blind-sided her and got her down. Peach was mauled around quite hard in the snow, and was finally rolled over face-to-face with the Red Angus-Gelbvieh cross cow. Peach remembered the eye-poking conversation and did just that. The cow left, and my dear wife was able to get up and limp back through the corrals. I had been filling my tractor with fuel, and heard the commotion. I was on my way to check out the cow bellering, which sounded much like it does if a coyote comes through the herd. Peach came out of the deal with a broken collar bone, but it might have been much worse had she not poked the cows' eyes.
 

WyomingRancher

Well-known member
Northern Rancher said:
Were around hooky rodeo bulls all spring and summer and get by just fine because we RESPECT them. It's the chop pail barnyard pets that kill most people-if I want to scratch somethings ears I have a fat old Beagle.


:clap:
Those bulls obviously have a healthy RESPECT for you too. So you're saying you don't care for the halter broke bulls either :lol: ? I've never understood why in the world people want to make pets out of those things... may be cute as a calf, but not as a 1800+ pound bull.

That's great that people can make pets out of them, but I personally want my bulls to fully understand who's in charge at all times, the minute they start to question that is the minute they become hamburger :wink: .
 

Kato

Well-known member
We had a neighbour attacked by a yearling bull a few years ago. Their dog jumped in and kept it off her, probably saving her life. She ended up with a couple of cracked vertebrae, but it could have been a whole lot worse if the dog hadn't been there.

By the time her husband got her to the hospital, her son had the bull at the auction mart. Where he belonged. :shock: :shock:
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
I had a cow blindside me once. The way she hit me it put a fence post right on my sternum and it was a ' barb' wire fence.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion to me. I was in the middle -- the fence on front side...the pizzed off cow on the other side! :shock: :shock:

Next thing I saw was blood EVERYWHERE...I thought to myself that the wire had cut me up bad.


But...no....my Aussie had come to the scene and had started in on the cow and had literally shredded her ears and nose...and that was the blood I was seeing.


I had doozie of bruises on my chest from the post.....my legs from the pressure of the wire against them as I went down...and my back where she whammed into me.


She went to McDonalds the next day!

I raise A LOT of bulls....but have never had one to go bad on me as of yet. I am around them from the minute they hit the ground....and they are treated prob better than they should be as they grow up .....but we keep a respectful balance.
 

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