On the day we graduated from journalism school and threw our cap in the air, only to shortly afterwards replace it with a different style of hat that has the little press card tucked in to it, we dreamed that one day we'd get to write a headline like that. This is our day.
Derek Gow is a farmer in Devon who purchased a herd of Heck cattle back in 2009, a breed of cow that had come into being as a result of German zoologists hoping to recreate an extinct breed called aurochs in the 1930s.
The 13 beasts that he got soon settled in to life on his farm and their number grew to 20, but recently, seven of them had to be put down after becoming incredibly aggressive and threatening the lives of his staff (we're presuming physically, rather than verbally). Speaking to The Independent, Gow said that they would attack and try to kill anyone they could, and "They are by far and away the most aggressive animals I have ever worked with."
He added that their aggressive characteristics come from their breeding: "Heck cattle were the product of an attempt to back-breed using a number of existing older species, including Spanish fighting bulls, Friesians and Simmentals."
Although seven proved too aggressive for the farm, he did say that the other 13 were kept, and that they are calm, friendly animals that haven't shown any murderous tendencies. The animals that were culled were turned in to "very tasty" sausages, according to Gow.
Via The Independent, Mashable. Main pic via Wikipedia.
