Animal rescue

All too often animals suffer the indignity of being involved in the forgetfulness and inconsideration of human beings. I've seen some odd behaviour towards animals and I don't mean basic cruelty. The most peculiar was when I was working on a farm at about the age of 20. One cow had been separated from the herd to await the gropings of the AI man. As was their wont, cows in such a condition made an almost continuous combined breathy cough and crying noise. It could be very loud. On this particular day the farm manager was trying to talk to some visiting sales rep but was finding it hard to concentrate. Suddenly he could take it no more, so he swung round to the tethered cow and shouted "Oh, shut up!" and the cow, looking extremely startled did just that - four a couple of minutes.

Some animals get caught up in the panic of others. One day I had to escort some dry cows to a field which meant a fairly long road walk for them. Not given to road sign sense, the cows drifted off down the wrong road and into a garden.They were running around a circular rose bed when an upstairs window burst open and a scantily clad woman started to berate me and scare the cows.

Now I see that a cow has fallen down a drainage ditch in Sutton Park in Birmingham. How she got there is not revealed, but John Porter, the park manager, said he had not known that the drainage ditch existed. He said it had been covered with railway sleepers which had become rotten and could not withstand the weight of the animal. So she was in the wrong place at the wrong time!

A couple of years ago a bullock got trapped in a swimming pool, and recently a rider and her horse have been rescued from a Cambridgeshire ditch where they were stuck upside down. The horse was winched out OK and the rider was unharmed.

The thing that gets me here is that the animals are very much at the mercy of us humans. We do care, but I wonder if we understand if the animals find it all a trifle embarrassing.