The CDC published an analysis in 2009 of deaths caused by cattle in four states–Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska–from 2003-2008. Those states, combined “accounted for 16% of the nation’s approximately 985,000 cattle operations and 21% of the nation’s cattle and calf herd,” according to the CDC report.
Researchers identified 21 cattle-related deaths during that time period in those four states.
A total of 21 deaths met the case definition for 2003–2008. Four fatalities occurred in 2003, two in 2004, six in 2005, and three each year during 2006–2008. During these years, eight of the fatalities occurred in Iowa, two in Kansas, seven in Missouri, and four in Nebraska. The 21 decedents ranged in age from 8 to 86 years, with a median age of 65 years (mean age: 61 years). Only one of the victims was female. One of the victims was a boy aged 8 years who was helping castrate cattle when he was crushed against a squeeze chute. One third of the deaths occurred in March and April.
The victims’ most common activities at the time of death were working with and treating cattle in enclosed spaces such as pens and chutes (n = 7) and moving or sorting cattle toward pens, barns, or pastures (n = 5). Incidents also occurred while loading cattle into trucks or trailers (n = 3), feeding (n = 3), or working in an open pasture (n = 3).
This article has been cited frequently as a counterpoint to the hysteria surrounding other rare causes of death, such as shark attacks. In the United States during the same period of 2003-2008, for example, there were a total of 4 people killed by shark attacks.
A comprehensive study of deaths caused by animals in the United States from 1999-2007, estimated there were 1,802 fatalities caused by animals during that period, with a total of 10 of those fatalities caused by marine animals (and 8 of those 10 were by sharks).