Cow kills farm worker in Cherryville, Canada

The man killed in a cow attack on a B.C. farm on Canada Day has been identified by the B.C. Coroners Service as 49-year-old Allen Donald Powder.

Powder, who called Yellowknife, N.W.T., home, came to the Okanagan to work every summer. He was working on a farm in Cherryville, B.C., the morning of July 1.

Cherryville, which is at the foothills of the Monashee Mountains, is roughly 55 kilometres east of Vernon in B.C.'s North Okanagan.

According to a statement released by the coroner, Powder and another farm worker were moving cattle from one corral to another when the cow attacked.

"One of the cows became very agitated and aggressive and they were having trouble controlling the cow," said B.C. Coroners Service spokesperson Barb McLintock.

"The cow turned on Mr. Powder and butted him really hard with its head."

Powder ran and climbed over a fence, but then collapsed. He couldn't be resuscitated.

The cow had a horn that was lopped short. Powder died from injuries from blunt force trauma.​

McLintock says she has never heard of anything like it before.

But Gord Molendyk, spokesperson for the RCMP in Vernon, B.C., said deaths from livestock attacks are more common than some may think.​

"Canadian Cattlemen put out an article on aggressive cattle and one of the stats in there is over a 15-year period in Canada, 23 people were killed by cows, and this is generally dealing with the beef industry," he said.​

A funeral was held for Powder in Yellowknife earlier this month.

WorkSafeBC and the B.C. Coroners Service are still investigating his death.

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