Deadly cows prompt law change in Austria
March 12, 2019
Hikers roaming Austria's picturesque Alpine pastures will have to follow a "code of conduct," the government said Monday, after a German tourist was trampled to death by cows.
"We will lay out clearly in the code of conduct what is expected of people who use mountain pastures," Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told a press conference in Vienna.
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The incident happened in 2014 in Tyrol when cows felt so threatened by a German hiker's dog that they killed the woman. Austrian farmers have been enraged by an Innsbruck court ruling last month ordering the farmer who owned the cattle to pay hundreds of thousands of euros in damages to the 45-year-old woman's family for neglecting to fence in the cows.
"We don't want mountain pastures to be completely fenced off or closed. We therefore have to inform people about the behavior of wild and farm animals," Sustainability and Tourism Minister Elisabeth Köstinger said.
Mother cows sometimes feel they need to defend their calves against dogs.
Hikers are advised to release their dogs from a leash when cows charge. In the German woman's case she had the dog leash tied to her waist.
Kurz did not specify what measures the government would take, but said it would involve telling hikers how to handle dogs.
"We expect that if people stick to this code of conduct, there will be no incidents. If someone does not stick to the code of conduct, then they will lose the chance to claim damages," Kurz said.
cw/aw (dpa, Reuters)