Farmer gored in attack by buffalo

Steven Mitchell, 30, whose Puddledub Buffalo farm in Fife has been featured on Gordon Ramsay’s F Word, is recovering in hospital after being left  battered and bruised when the rampaging buffalo dragged him 50 metres across a field.

He said: “I’m lucky to be alive. I thought: ‘This is it.’ My clothes were ripped off. They punctured my body. I was a total mess. I tried to play dead, thinking they would stop.”

Mitchell, who runs the buffalo farm in Auchtertool in Fife, which produces a range of gourmet buffalo products, was taking part in a photo shoot for an art gallery when the accident happened.

“I was about five metres from the herd and all was going very well. It was a good opportunity to get a picture,” he said.

“I knelt down in front of the herd and all was fine, but then one jumped out and attacked me.

“It was a mother and it let out a war cry because I think it thought I was a threat to the calves in the field.

“Then the whole herd  attacked me. They circled round and started goring me to protect the young. I tried to play dead thinking they would stop.

“I was trying to protect my upper torso – my heart, my ribs – but they dragged me 50 metres across the field towards a pond.”

The photographer carrying out the photo shoot, along with a local council worker, eventually managed to stop the attack by driving Mitchell’s pick-up truck towards the herd and blaring the horn.

“Without a doubt, [the photographer] saved my life,” Mitchell said. “Without their presence of mind I would have struggled to escape.”

The shocked local authority workers then drove Mitchell to Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, where he underwent surgery for wounds to his calf, thighs and posterior.