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Father and son gored to death by family water buffalo after trying to fight it off with iron baton

A commercial property in Gwehelog, Monmouthshire where man has died and two people have been injured after reportedly being attacked by a water buffalo.
Ralph Jump and his son Peter were killed last year after they were attacked by a water buffalo at their farm in Gwehelog, Monmouthshire, in Wales. (PA)

A father and son were killed after being gored by a water buffalo at their family farm after it went on a rampage.

Ralph Jump, 57, and his son, Peter Jump, 19, died after being attacked by the animal on their nine-acre farm in Gwehelog, near Usk in Wales, on 5 May last year.

Peter lost his life after trying to save his father from being attacked by the water buffalo.

Jump’s daughter, Isabel, 22, was also injured in the attack involving one of the herd.

Gwent Coroner’s Court in Newport heard on Thursday that the family kept Mediterranean buffalo to sell the milk for use as soap, but that the four-year-old bull involved in the attack – named Yolo – had started to show signs of disliking Peter.

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Ralph Jump was killed by a water buffalo at his farm in Wales last year. (Wales News Service)
Ralph Jump was killed by a water buffalo at his farm in Wales last year. (Wales News Service)
Peter Jump, 19, also died after the attack. (Wales News)
Peter Jump, 19, also died after the attack. (Wales News)

Jump’s wife, Josephine, said the family had purchased two cows and a bull in 2016, and while during the first two years there were no problems, they had later noticed that the bull “didn’t like Peter” and would hold its head up and “watch him”.

She said: “The bull never behaved like this with me or (Ralph) and we would keep Peter away from him.”

Jump was in the family kitchen just before 3pm on 5 May last year when she saw that a hay ring in the field outside had been pushed against an electric fence and asked her husband to move it.

She said in a statement that she was preparing food when Isabel came into the kitchen shouting that Yolo was “pushing dad down the field” and quickly rushed outside after getting hold of a stick.

“I could see him being rolled down the hill by the bull and I could hear he was groaning. I got between them but it kept trying to get back at him. He was groaning but looked unconscious,” she said.

Jump said her son, Peter, who was home from university due to the coronavirus pandemic, arrived on the muddy field holding an iron baton to “hit the bull away” from his father.

“All of a sudden, the bull started going for Peter, and got him,” she said.

The bull began to walk back to where Ralph lay prone on the floor, prompting his wife to try and protect him, but she said she realised “he’d gone”.

She said: “I couldn’t hear him and I knew he’d passed.”

Jump said the bull then began attacking her daughter, who was also stood in the field while ringing emergency services, and described her being “dragged around” by the animal before it lost interest and returned to attacking Peter.

Emergency services attended the scene and noted that Peter had “an obvious hole in his neck”.

A father and son were killed in a water buffalo attack on a farm in Wales last year. (Wales News Service)
A father and son were killed in a water buffalo attack on a farm in Wales last year. (Wales News Service)
The farm in Gwehelog, Monmouthshire, where a father and son were killed in a water buffalo attack. (Wales News Service)
The farm in Gwehelog, Monmouthshire, where a father and son were killed in a water buffalo attack. (Wales News Service)

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He was taken by air ambulance to hospital with “critical” injuries, while his father, who worked as a managing director, was pronounced dead at the scene and was later found to have suffered multiple injuries to his chest.

Peter, who had suffered rib fractures and lacerations, was operated on at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, but was unable to be properly ventilated as he had blood in his lungs and died later that day.

Isabel was discharged from hospital after suffering a serious injury to her leg.

Armed police who arrived at the scene shot the bull dead.

Coroner Caroline Saunders told the inquest jury they would have to determine whether “appropriate steps were taken” in terms of safety at the farm and whether “failings in working practices contributed to the deaths”.

The inquest continues.

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