Personal Injury Claims Involving Animals

Accidents involving livestock could affect you if you work on a farm or if you are passing through a field during a country stroll. If you’ve been injured in an accident involving livestock while on a walk or while working at your job, you could be able to claim livestock compensation.

At First Personal Injury, our team understands how traumatic and serious an injury caused by livestock can be. Therefore, we want to take the legal burden out of your hands and ensure that you get the best representation possible, ensuring that you get the compensation you need to recover from your injuries and maintain your quality of life.

To assess your claim, contact us on 0333 358 2345 or online.

Types Of Claims For Livestock Compensation

There are many different types of accidents and injuries that you could experience due to entering a confrontation with an animal. In particular, cows and bulls are involved in the most livestock accidents in the UK. For example, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated 142 incidents involving cows between 2015-2016 and 2019-2020, 22 of which resulted in deaths. Some of the most common accident and injury types caused by animals include:

• Crushing accidents – this is particularly likely to occur if you are attacked by a horse or a cow as they are larger animals.
• Road traffic accident – you could potentially be injured by an animal suddenly crossing the road in front of your vehicle while you are driving. This type of accident is especially likely to occur involving sheep.
• Cuts and lacerations caused by an animal attack.
• Broken or fractured bones.
• Head trauma and brain damage.
• Internal injuries – such as punctured lungs or broken ribs.
• Loss of fingers or toes.
• Biting injuries.
• Minor impalement due to being involved in an accident with an animal that has horns, such as a goat.
• Facial disfigurement.

If you have been involved in any of the accidents or injury types listed above, you could be able to claim livestock compensation. To find out whether you can claim compensation, speak to First Personal Injury as soon as possible to assess your claim.

Responsibility Of The Farmer

It is the responsibility of the farm owner to have their animals under control and to put precautions into place so that they cannot attack the general public or their employees. For example, if you work on a farm, there should be a pen or a similar contraption in place for when you are performing a procedure on a cow, so that there is a barrier between you and the animal.

However, within the UK there is also a considerable amount of public right of way walkways that pass through fields. Furthermore, the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CROW) gives the public the right to walk on access land that has been mapped out, as well as mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common land. This presents extra risk for farmers that their cattle might hurt a member of the public. While animals are unpredictable and you cannot possibly prepare for every scenario, the HSE has outlined certain precautions that farmers must take to decrease the likelihood of the public being endangered by your livestock. These measures include:

• Bulls of any recognised dairy breeds are banned from being in large fields crossed by public rights of way. They should not be kept ‘in fields with public rights of way, statutory or other types of permitted access.’
• If you are considering putting a bull (who is not bound by the restrictions listed above) into a public access field, then you should carefully monitor the animal’s temperament and behaviour.
• Beef bulls are banned from areas with footpaths unless accompanied by cows or heifers. This rule doesn’t include open fells or unenclosed moorland. There are no such stipulations against other types of cattle.
• You should consider putting a sign at any gate, stile or other access point into a field or open area, like a fell, hill or moorland, if there is a bull or cows with calves in there

There are other precautions outlined by the HSE about how to ensure that your farm is as hazard free as possible for members of the public who are crossing through. There are further guidelines and precautions, as well as specific instructions about how to carry out these guidelines, listed on the HSE Cattle and Public Access in England Wales information sheet.

Employee Livestock Compensation

If your injury occurred while you were employed on a farm, you may be able to claim compensation as a result. Your employer has a duty of care to protect your health and safety while you are at work. If your employer took all the necessary steps to protect your health and safety and you were simply injured in an unpredictable attack, then your claim may not be valid. However, if an animal attacked you and there were certain precautions that should have been in place which could have protected your health, you may be able to claim.

Among other regulations, your employer should:

• Perform regular risk assessments – such as inspecting the temperament of their animals and assessing if the way that you/your fellow employees carry out certain tasks involving the animals are performed as safely as possible.
• Put precautions in place – they should put certain precautions – such. As pens/cages in place so that when you perform certain tasks, like feeding, there is a protective barrier between you and the animal.
• Not understaffed – you should not have to perform certain tasks that have an element of danger to them on your own. There is safety in numbers.
• Properly trained – you and your fellow employees should be properly trained about how to handle animals and perform all the tasks related to your job role. You should also be trained about how to deescalate a situation if it becomes dangerous.
• Provide you with any necessary personal protective equipment (PPE).

If your employer has failed to uphold their duty of care towards your health and safety, you may be able to claim compensation. Furthermore, if a fellow employee has acted in a negligent way or with carelessness and this has caused you to suffer an injury, you could be able to claim. This negligence could include not following their training when performing a certain task.

Livestock Personal Injury Compensation

There are many different types of injuries that you could suffer due to a livestock accident. The amount of compensation that you are awarded is therefore unique to each case because each case is unique in itself. The amount of compensation that you are awarded will be determined by two categories: general damages and special damages.

General Damages

General damages refers to the physical and emotional damage caused by your injuries. In the simplest terms, it refers to compensation for pain and suffering. This type of compensation also covers any losses of amenity, aka a decrease in ability to function, that has arisen from the injuries sustained in an accident. Compensation will be awarded based upon the severity of these factors, understanding that the higher the severity of the injuries, the worse the pain/suffering and impact upon your life. To view estimates for personal injury types, visit our compensation calculator.

An example of a compensation estimate is £3,0101 – £46,780 for an elbow injury. You could be awarded anywhere between £22,340 – £82,080 for a severe knee injury. As you can see, compensation amounts can vary wildly for the same type of injury. Therefore, the best way to determine how much compensation you are likely to be awarded is to speak to a personal injury solicitor directly.

Special Damages

Special damages compensation refers to compensation that covers the financial losses and expenses incurred as a result of an accident or medical negligence. Special damages could help to reclaim a loss of income if you have been unable to work due to your injuries. Similarly, if you have had to pay to go a medical appointment or if you had to pay to travel to a medical appointment, you could be able to claim these medical costs back.

You should keep detailed records of any receipts or other documents which help to outline any relevant financial losses relating to your injuries. These can later be used during your personal injury case to try and determine how much livestock injury compensation you are owed. Once again, you should speak to a personal injury solicitor directly to understand how much compensation you are likely to be owed.

Making Personal Injury Claims

If you have suffered a personal injury, you may be entitled to receive compensation. First Personal Injury is available to assist you and ensure that you win the compensation that you deserve.

Contact our specialist team to begin the process, either by phone on 0333 358 2345 or through our online form.