Future dangerous judgment for the Alpine farming

A farmer from the Tyrol should pay damages in the mid six-digit range, because his cows have trampled a hiker. Agriculture representatives and the Alpine club to see the critical.

Titus Arnu, Born in 1966, has been working since 2006 for the editorial Panorama. Previously, he was at the magazine, SZ, wrote for the SZ-magazine, mirror, Geo, National Geographic and Mare. He attended the German journalist school and studied Comparative literature and journalism in Munich. So far, bizarrster Job: a correspondent in Europe of a Japanese dog magazine.

The Pinnistal is in Hiking guides as "wild and romantic". The hike through the valley in the Stubai Alps ended in the summer of 2014 for a German tourist tragic. Wild cows attacked the 45-year-old woman, died of her injuries. The path went across a pasture, the herd was not fenced. After the accident, the victim's husband sued the owner of the animals to Pain and suffering - and now, after years of court hearings law.

The land court of Innsbruck spoke to the husband and the son of the victim, a total of approximately 180 000 Euro. In addition, the farmer had to pay the husband a monthly pension of 1200 euros and the son of 350 Euro, informed the court on Friday.

According to the court, had warned the farmer only inadequate against the dangers of a herd, the calves grow up. The established warning signs ("caution suckler cows") had not been sufficient. "At a critical point as the scene of the accident, fenced-off areas for the protection of the highest Good, of human life are necessary, and due to the low cost, reasonable," it said in the justification.

The excitement about the ground-breaking judgment, is big in Austria. Finally, most of the Hiking trails lead through meadows. The judgment should be appealable, expect an "avalanche of consequences, especially for Cattle farmers in the Alpine area", said the lawyer of the farmer, Ewald Jenewein.

Josef Hechenberger, President of the Tyrolean chamber of agriculture, referred to the legal decision as a "future dangerous judgment for the Alpine farming". For all the tragedy of the circumstances, the judgment was "surprising and incomprehensible", Hechenberger, because the decision is practice. The pressure on farmers to grow from this, because "after all, is going on in our pastures, more and more" but on consideration there is a lack often. The guilty verdict no longer bring may some farmers to drive their livestock to the pastures.

The herd was not "held in custody according to the court, properly"

cow-attacks on hikers happen again and again, most dogs are in the game, and most of the time, the aggressive cows to mother animals who wish to protect their calves.

Also, in the case of the 2014 killed a tourist: The woman, the dog had your Terrier leash with a carabiner to the hip fixed and you could not solve in time. You would have to have been according to the court, know that the mother cows can react aggressively to dogs. It was careless, the dog connect that he could not be left out in case of emergency, immediately. "The probability of an immediate attack was due to the other behavior of the Victim but very low," the court said. In the opinion of the district court of the country has, therefore, host to the debt, because the herd had not been "properly stored".