THE wife of a man trampled to death by cattle while walking his dog has called for tighter controls on cows near public footpaths.

John McNamara, 67, was walking his golden retriever Soleil near his home in Forest Row when he was attacked and killed last October.

His wife Alison Read has now called for stricter laws as it was revealed that Sussex had the highest number of deaths caused by cattle in the country.

New figures from the Health and Safety Executive, published this week, show that John was just one of three people trampled by cattle in Sussex. There were six cases of farmers and members of the public being trampled across the country. Only one survived.

Osteopath Alison told The Argus: “We had walked the dogs through the fields for years.

“Before this I would never have known how dangerous cows can be. You think of them as benevolent creatures. I don’t blame the cows, they are just protecting their young – but I wouldn’t leave my dogs alone with a toddler and its the same principle.

“I think about this an awful lot. More needs to be done to make farmers properly assess the risk.

“The advice for farmers should be changed so it is the law.

“The only advice they are given is to ask that they assess the risk, but it needs to be more clearly defined.

“On many public footpaths, the only way to get past is to cross through the cows and calves.

“The field John was killed in had cows and calves and a bull in it, but there was no other route other than crossing that field.

“It takes just a few minutes to put up an electric fence, so if farmers have cows with calves in fields that cross public rights of way, it would be very simple to put up a fence.

“Around here the calves are kept with the cows for nine months – you can’t stop people accessing public rights of the way for most of the year, so they need to do something.”

In the second case a 66-year-old woman was trampled and killed while walking her dog through a field of cows and young calves in Chichester.

She died as a result of crush injuries.

Farmer Stephen Sandys was also crushed to death by one of his own cattle at Pinstraw Farm, in Groombridge on August 11.

His wife Christine came home to find him on the ground with a nine-year-old Aberdeen Angus bull, cows and calves.

The bull was “snorting and stamping” but Mrs Sandys was unable to get close and called the police.

He died from chest injuries.