I WAS devastatingly saddened by the death of Liz Crowsley, a fellow veterinarian crushed to death by a herd of cows while out walking on the Pennine Way in Wensleydale.

Mr David Blunkett was similarly attacked, and was very lucky to survive.

When the Right to Roam initiative was introduced, several veterinary surgeons expressed the opinion that a degree of caution should apply due to the hazards particularly associated with animals that had offspring, apart from which rams and billy goats can give children a hefty butt, that can cause serious injuries.

I have been chased by a boar over 600 yards’ distance – an extremely hazardous experience as the tusks are as sharp as razors.

Fortunately at the time I was supremely fit.

A steer attacked me in a loose box on another occasion. I just managed to reach a corner, when the horns struck either side of my waist.

It fell unconscious at my feet. Both horns were broken off at the base – a turn of the head, and I would have been dead.

David Milliband suggested, at the inception of the Right to Roam, that anyone who objected to the free movement of ramblers was medieval.

Well! Better to be alive than medieval and dead.

There is of course the other hazard associated with disease – dogs in particular picking up tuberculosis from discharges etc from cattle, wildlife including badgers, campylobacter, salmonella, e-coli to name but a few.

There is also the odd cow lying dead awaiting blood sample tests from the vet, re Anthrax – someone’s dog licking the discharges then licking a child.

Yet health and safety personnel are concerned about playing conkers or someone climbing a ladder!

EDWARD PRICE, Manor Road, Bournemouth