Imagine getting your village so bothered and disrupted by a livestock animal that you decide to take it upon yourself to fight and drive the animal away – like a man from rural Derbyshire, England did, after a ram started causing massive mayhem in his village.
David Evans wrestled the animal for 10 minutes after it charged at him out of nowhere, while he was peacefully going about his day.
The Derby Telegraph reported the news first and BBC has confirmed it too. The latter reported that the animal stays in a field in Kirk Ireton and has injured several people in the area, leaving some of them with broken bones, and one of them even had to get a metal plate fitted in his hand.
As per BBC's reports, the details of the ram's mayhem were revealed at a parish council meeting last week. Villagers say they have become victims of the ram's "vicious reign of terror", a local newspaper reported. A public footpath runs through the field where the ram wanders, and villagers want signs along the path to warn walkers about the risks.
"You'll know from the last meeting we were having trouble with this ram," parish council chairwoman Kath Stevens told members at the meeting. "Well, it's gradually getting worse and worse. One man, as I understand it, has had two operations as a result of this ram, and a steel plate put in, David Evans has been injured, and there's an old gentleman hobbling around in Hull that's been badly butted."
The council has already written to the farmer (who owns the livestock), asking him to remove the animal, as David Evans – the man who wrestled the ram – showed up at the meeting with his strapped up thumb as solid proof of the encounter. David spoke about the several cuts he received from the "wrestle," including the one in his arm that has gone septic now.
The Derby Telegraph reported his account of the ram. "It's nasty little beast. It's not very big, but it's got a huge head and it gets well off the ground, you don't see it coming. It's very dangerous. You can't see it if it comes from a far corner of the field."
Speaking of his own encounter, David told BBC: "I crossed the stile at the bottom of the field and walked up and this ram appeared alongside me, quite friendly I thought. I looked down and it herded me across the field so I pushed it away, it backed off and just charged.
"(It had a) massive pair of horns, I grabbed its horns and wrestled with it for a bit, put it down and it still came at me again."
Derby Telegraph's reporter Gareth Butterfield also spoke of his face-off with the animal, saying: "He walked slowly at first, but his pace soon quickened. This was the point at which I thought I'd better up sticks."
Derbyshire Police stated that the dangerous ram is more of a civil matter than a criminal one.
The owner is yet to give a comment on the issue.
