Georgia farmer considers retirement after rabid cow attack
Farming is tough business.
Area cows have donated a nice recliner for the farmer's recovery. (Unrelated AP Photo)
Droughts, weeds and bugs all conspire against the modern husbandman.
And don’t forget the threat of 900-pound rabid farm animals. The Associated Press reports a Georgia farmer “in his early 70s” is considering retiring from his ancient profession after being attacked by a rabid cow.
Raymond Parks, of the Maysville area, located about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta on I-85, said he feared he would not survive the assault — a violent head-butting that threw him into a barbed wire fence.
Parks suffered broken ribs, but told WXIA TV he was still able to blast the unnamed and unarmed cow three times with his shotgun. Still, the animal didn’t die and a veterinarian was called several days later to put the animal out of its misery.
How did the animal contract rabies? The AP reports Parks’ Jackson County farm is near the spot where a rabid bobcat was recently discovered.
Cows rarely contract rabies, but 19 other animals in Parks’ herd have been placed in quarantine for six months.
Parks’ wife of more than 50 years, Pauline, said despite recent events that her husband will never retire.
In other farm animal news: Inmate adds pig image to Vermont police cruiser decals
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75 comments Add your comment
Destiny
February 3rd, 2012
11:21 am
Are some of you serious? Sympathy for the cow? What about the Human being who could have easily lost his life. Poor old frail farmer. If I was him I wouldn’t want to see Betsy ever again either. Three shots he thought the heifer was dead. What really disgust me is how some people put animals before humans. That goes for dog fighting, or whatever.
Ummmm....
February 3rd, 2012
11:27 am
Can’t speak for others, but I’m not necessarily putting the animal before the farmer. It is understood the farmer got medical treatment. To be shot 3x, human or animal, and not die but remain in pain is cruel. No one should linger in pain like that. I’m advocating for both human and animal kind…
The Reverend Baby Doctor Bedpan
February 3rd, 2012
11:29 am
This is why I eat manatee or panda.
BK
February 3rd, 2012
11:31 am
Do you know what the worst part about being a vegetarian is?…Everything. The man is 70, he was putting food on your table before Sarah Mclachlan was crying over cats. Corporate greed has already pushed this man into a dwindling demographic, yet you people are pissed a 900 lbs “animal” with a communicable disease was running around with buckshot in its thick hide? Maybe you should let the cows also take your vote in the next election as well, seems like yours would be a waste anyway.
Taco Bell
February 3rd, 2012
11:32 am
Can we buy that cow for our tacos?
Ummmm....
February 3rd, 2012
11:34 am
@BK ~ get your panties out of ya butt…I feel for the farmer more than the cow, but was only wondering why it took so long to get a vet out there? Not like the wild wild west where a pigeon carrier got news to the town’s only vet.
Truett Cathy
February 3rd, 2012
11:37 am
It was an act of god.
ML
February 3rd, 2012
11:38 am
Ummmm…. February 3rd, 2012 11:08 am…”WOW, you really think the cows donated a couch??”
No, Einstein, I don’t think so. You apparently can’t recognize sarcasm.
jodie 2
February 3rd, 2012
11:39 am
Common sense will tell you that the farmer was trying to get well, how would he know the animal was still alive? Thank the Lord he was not killed. You would think the animal was dead!
mad cow
February 3rd, 2012
11:41 am
The man was 70 and probably beat up pretty badly. He was probably just trying to stay alive. He may not have even known until days later that the cow was still alive. Give him a break. However I do feel bad about the cow.