German police shoot killer bull in Bavaria
July 28, 2019
A farmer and his elderly father were killed in the southern German state of Bavaria on Saturday after a bull attacked the two men in a cow pasture.
The incident took place on a farm near the town of Gleissenberg, located near the Czech border.
According to police, the 60-year-old farmer went to the pasture to check and mark a newborn calf when he was rushed by the bull.
After the farmer didn't return for several hours, his parents went to look for him. When the man's 87-year-old father entered the pasture, he was also attacked and fatally injured.
Police shot animal
His mother alerted emergency crews, but they were not initially able to reach the two victims due to the bull's aggressive behavior. Police were forced to then shoot and kill the animal.
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The mass-circulation Bild newspaper reported that police shot the 600-kilogram (1,322-pound) bull eight times before it was brought down.
It was not immediately clear why the bull behaved so aggressively and attacked the two men, although it is possible the animal was trying to defend the herd as several cows and calves were in the field, police said.
Authorities said the farmer was very experienced and regularly checked on the animals. There hadn't been any previous issues with the bull, which had lived on the farm for about one and a half years.
There have been several deadly incidents involving bulls and cows in Germany in recent years.
In 2016, a 48-year-old farmer in Allgäu sustained fatal injuries after a young bull attacked him. A similar fate befell another farmer in Bad Tölz in 2014 when a bull attacked her in a stall. That same year, a 57-year-old farmer in Altötting was trampled to death in a pasture by his herd of cows.
rs/se (dpa, AFP)