Ram attacks - especially in breeding season - are common on farms and lifestyle blocks across New Zealand, but fatalities are rare, animal experts say.
It comes as a ram is suspected of killing West Auckland couple Helge Hansen and Gaye Hansen on their hobby farm on Anzac Valley Rd.
The couple’s son found their bodies yesterday morning, with police confirming they shot dead an aggressive ram in the same paddock the pair was discovered.
Dr Elsa Flint, a veterinarian and university lecturer in animal behaviour, said otherwise benign rams can become aggressive during breeding season, which runs from about the end of March to July.
“Certainly, there are rams that can be very aggressive, and they’ll pack a lot of punch, they have a lot of force behind their charges,” she said.
“They would normally be competing, if they were a wild population, with other rams that wanted to take over.”
Other situations in which rams can become aggressive could be when a farmer is trying to single a ram out to give it treatment, such as a spray for parasites and worms.
In such circumstances, the ram could charge out of self defence, animal behaviour consultant Mark Vette said.
“Once you get them cornered, they’re a bit more risky in terms of they’ll have a go back.”
Police at the Anzac Valley Rd property in West Auckland after a couple were believed killed by a ram. Photo / Jason Oxenham
That’s why farmers typically use working dogs, yards and races to make them easier to manage.
“They’re a powerful animal and they can be quite a heavy animal,” with Vette saying the ram would likely have outweighed Helge Hansen.
Ironically, hand-reared or pet rams can also be more dangerous.
While a “paddock” ram may steer clear of humans due to its desire to stick with the flock, a pet ram is more used to being in close contact with humans, Vette said.
When that familiarity with humans mixes with a natural desire to mate and compete during breeding season, some rams can be more prone to charge.
The circumstances surrounding the Hansen’s deaths remain unclear.
Flint and Vette didn’t want to speculate on what happened, but both said fatal attacks by rams are rare.
In most cases, people are able to get themselves out of harms way after being hit.
Rams also don’t typically continue to charge when people fall to the ground, meaning people can sometimes be left lying hurt on the ground after being hit.
Flint said reading reports of fatal attacks from overseas indicated victims were typically elderly.
“The reports I’ve read from other countries, they have been older people, and the injuries have been things like fractured ribs because the rams hit them on the side and then the ribs puncture the lungs and they’ve died as a result of that.”
Flint keeps sheep at her property and said a local shearer’s wife had suffered a serious spinal injury when a ram hit her in the back.
Both Flint and Vette have also been hit by rams.
Flint has a ram and one neutered male sheep. And while her ram is “sweet”, it was the neutered one that has run at her from behind and knocked her down.
“I would walk through the paddock and he would decide to charge,” she said.
“He’d always wait till my back was turned, and I’d gone past and then he would just rush at me and whack into the back of my knees and floor me,” she said.
“I’d be on the ground, but then after that, he’d just walk away, turn around and look at me as if to say: ‘Yeah, got you’.”
Police at the property in West Auckland after the deaths of two people. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Highlighting the punching power the rams have when they charge, Flint said her ram and neutered male had ended up on opposite sides of a 50mm thick wooden fence and apparently charged each other.
The impact completely punched through the fence.
Vette said there are a lot of unknowns and even things like whether the ram had horns or not could have a bearing on the power of the impact.
“It’d be good to have a bit more inside knowledge on the actual ram itself, what its history of rearing was and what its history of relationship was (to it’s owners),” he said.
“But it’s not uncommon on a farm that you’ll get one or two rams that you’ve got to watch, and that if you get in the wrong position, they’ll have a crack.”
The attack has left family members in shock, while police were confronted by the rogue ram in a paddock when arriving at the property, before shooting it dead.
Police confirmed a “ram was in the paddock at the time we were notified of the deaths.
“Another party at the scene suffered a minor injury after being attacked by this ram,” police said.
“Once our staff arrived at the scene they, too, were confronted and approached by the ram. On undertaking a risk assessment, the ram was shot and died at the scene.”
Family member Dean Burrell speaks to the media after a ram killed his aunt and her husband at a West Auckland property. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Police said they were continuing to investigate the couple’s deaths at the Waitākere property in Anzac Valley Rd.
“Police are continuing to investigate on behalf of the coroner, to establish the full set of circumstances around what occurred in the paddock.
As part of this process, post-mortem examinations were due to be carried out on Friday.
A scene examination took place on Thursday and has now been completed, police said.
The Herald earlier reported the pair was found dead in the paddock by their son who went looking for them on Thursday morning after he hadn’t heard from them, a family spokesman said.
Family member Dean Burrell said it was his mother’s sister and her husband who died. He said the couple were both in their early 80s, retired, and had lived at the property for eight years.
“Unfortunately, they both lost their lives in a tragic accident. They are nice people and didn’t deserve this.
Police at the Anzac Valley Rd property in West Auckland had to shoot an aggressive ram. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“Everyone’s in shock as to what’s happened. They’re very upset. I feel like I was dreaming it actually, it was a bit of shock, being told what had happened and I just didn’t believe it.”
Burrell said the couple were hobby farmers.
”They had some sheep, some chickens and some cattle I believe.”
One neighbour who did not wish to be named told the Herald she saw the police shoot the ram.
“I saw them shoot the ram, and I put two and two together.”
She said the couple were lovely and genuine people enjoying their retirement.
This article was originally published on the NZ Herald here.
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