I was headbutted twice by a 70-stone cow – I was so badly injured I had to survive on smoothies for two weeks
A WOMAN has revealed her horrific injuries after being headbutted by a 70-stone cow.
Cathrene Mieras, 26, was walking her dog when she was rammed by the massive beast twice – leaving her with a painful black eye.
The 26-year-old, who was listening to a podcast on her headphones, only noticed the enraged cow a split-second before it struck her, meaning she had no chance of escape.
Cathrene quickly checked to see if her beloved pooch was OK, before frantically calling her dad to come help.
She was raced to hospital where he was loaded up with painkillers and whisked in for an X-Ray.
The environment officer luckily escaped any broken bones, but was left with a massive black eye.
She was also forced to live on smoothies for two weeks before pain in her jaw left her unable to eat.
Cathrene, from Carlisle, Cumbria said: “I thought it was going to kill me.
“It’s the most scared I’ve been in my entire life.
“I started walking into the field, and the next thing I remember is I looked up, because I was looking down at the dog saying ‘good boy’, and this big brown cow was just charging towards me.
“It dipped its head and headbutted me twice. The last thing I remember is this massive head hitting me.”
The 26-year-old said everyone had been shocked by her “monster” black eye.
She continued: “Everyone I’d spoke to had never seen a black eye that bad, it was like a tennis ball.”
The horror unfolded on September 4, and Cathrene can still recall the horror like it was yesterday.
The 26-year-old said: “One minute I was up the next thing I was down.
“I scooped the dog up and ran back across the two fields until I was far away and that’s when I got my phone out to look at my face on the camera.
“My eye was this massive swollen thing, and because I was in shock, I thought that was my eyeball popping out of my head.”
She continued: “I didn’t realise how lucky I was, because I started hearing all these other horror stories about cows and people being trampled and having much worse outcomes.
“I do consider myself very lucky that I’ve managed to come away with, touch wood, no lasting injuries, just a wonky face.”
Fatal cow encounters
Last month a woman was killed while walking her dogs through a field of 40 cows near Guilsfield in Wales.
In September 2020, Teresa Holmes and her husband of 34 years, Michael, were walking in Netherton with their two dogs when they crossed a field of cattle with calves and were set upon.
CCTV shown to an inquest jury showed how at least 25 cows charged at them.
Michael suffered 35 rib fractures and lacerations to his heart. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Teresa was airlifted to a hospital and lay unconscious for a week.
When she woke up her daughters and hospital staff had to break the devastating news of Michael’s death.
She was left paralysed, having suffered spinal cord damage, spinal fractures and fractured ribs, and is now wheelchair-bound and had to leave her job in children’s services at Leeds City Council.
Former deputy head teacher David Clark, 59, also died following an attack in 2020 involving 20 cows with calves near a public footpath.
A postmortem revealed the father-of-two suffered a fatal haemorrhage alongside fractures to his ribs.