Are Heck cattle aggressive?

Heck cattle are sometimes reputed as an aggressive breed, or even the “most aggressive cattle breed in the world”. Why is that? Well, mainly because of one incident. 

Everybody will be familiar with the story of the British farmer who purchased a herd of Heck cattle, and slaughtered several individuals because of their behaviour. They would have attacked people without a reason. Several tabloids have reported that story in the most lurid way possible. People who are only half-educated on Heck cattle often say this aggressive behaviour is because the breed was bred using the Spanish fighting bull, which is not true (go here for details). 

In the literature, however, Heck cattle are described as generally unproblematic in behaviour based on the experience of breeders [1]. And it has to be remembered that there are dozens of grazing projects using Heck cattle, where people handle the cattle and which are also open for visitors. The number of Heck cattle used in these projects in Germany alone is in the three-digit range. The majority of modern Heck cattle live in these projects. And yet there never has been an incident of an individual attacking or even injuring humans without a reason. I am not saying that there never was an attack, because there was one incident on the Isle of Wörth with the cow Arizona, which attacked because a woman approached her calf (go here). But cows attacking because they “defend” their calves is common among any cattle breed. People are killed or injured in the alps by ordinary farm cattle breeds every year, yet nobody considers Braunvieh or Fleckvieh aggressive breeds. Furthermore, Arizona is not an aggressive individual, I visited her herd in 2013. In general, the behaviour of Heck cattle in grazing projects is unproblematic. If Heck cattle were an aggressive breed, they would be difficult to handle and would not be that heavily used in grazing projects. Also there are many private keepers that have Heck cattle on farms, and there never was a case of aggressive individuals reported. 

I can confirm myself that Heck cattle are usually totally unproblematic in their behaviour towards humans. I have visited several Heck herds, and there never was even one individual that showed signs of aggression. Some of them even were that tame that I could stroke them. 

Why was that incident in Britain, then? It has to be noted that cattle behaviour also depends a lot on socialization. I do not know anything about the background of those Heck cattle which the British farmer purchased. If he got them from a grazing project, or any area with few human contact, it would not surprise me if he considered their behaviour too “wild” for a usual farm, because cattle redevelop wild behaviour quite quickly when living with few human contact [2]. We should not forget that cattle are prey animals that will defend themselves if they consider themselves threatened. Also, there is always variation in a breed. Even some Highland cattle individuals can have a grumpy temper on occasion. Maybe it was a combination of both factors, no socialization with humans previously and individual variation, maybe the farmer just had really bad luck with his individuals. 

It inevitably seems to be a case of bad luck as the overwhelming majority of Heck cattle are unproblematic in their behaviour. If they were an aggressive breed, there would be a lot of incidents of Heck cattle attacking without a reason, which is reportedly not the case. If that was the case, the breed would not be used that heavily in grazing projects, on farms and in zoos. 

Heck cattle are not an aggressive breed. Yet, that story from Britain gets repeated over and over and over because it seemingly is too entertaining for some people. But repeating that story over and over does not make Heck cattle any more aggressive than they are. 

 

Literature 

 

[1] Julia Poettinger, 2011: Vergleichende Studie zur Haltung und zum Verhalten des Wisents und des Heckrinds.

[2] Bunzel-Drüke et al.: Praxisleitfaden für Ganzjahresbeweidung in Naturschutz und Landschaftsentwicklung – “Wilde Weiden”. 2008.