Practice & Lesson

It's not only about catching fish and tying flies to get ready for the fall trip to Yellowstone Country. Today I had an opportunity to test my bear spray on "live target". I had bought this just about three years ago. Fortunately (or unfortunately as a sightseer), I haven't even seen a bear from the distance while fishing and driving in Yellowstone National Park. Fly shops in West Yellowstone, such as Blue Ribbon Flies, keep tabs of bear activities besides fishing reports. "Keep your bear spray ready and know how to use it". I should be able to spray as any other products in life. But I was wondering see if it really work.

Today, during the job, I used on a Jersey bull at a dairy farm. First to clarify, believe or not, dairy bulls are meaner and more dangerous than beef bulls at farm levels. Really. You know most of us have images and pictures of cowboys and rodeo with beef breeds. At ranches it can be true. Oftentimes even some beef cows can be very aggressive at cow-hands especially during calving season. Then the bulls seen at rodeo and matador are bred to be that way. On the contorary, you might have images and pictures of friendly milk cows at family zoo or farm, probably named Mary-Jane-Betsy..... But I can't emphasize that dairy bulls, primarily Holstein and Jersey, are totally different from milk cows and can be very dangerous by nature. Let me tell you this through my experience. Dairy bulls don't bluff. When they charge, they really aim you and mean to hurt you!! I myself have experienced some bad ones through my jobs. And I have even heard some deadly accidents.

I had noticed that Jersey bull was getting aggressive on me recently. He started trying to sneak up on me while I was checking on cows' estrus, i.e., his girlfriends.

Today he waited for me at the entrance of the corral. So I sprayed. Once then twice. It seemed nothing at first but took about 5 seconds to show the effect. Bull started to tear and drool and ran away from me. Then I entered the corral. Along with the mild wind and whatever left in the air, it stung my eyes and nose too!! OMG!!

Today's lessons learned:

• My bear spray has not been expired and does work on animals.
• Make sure to know what I'm doing!!

My eyes still feel peppery as of now. Hopefully it will go away after a night of sleep and I don't have to see a doctor. I re-read the handling manual and checked the expiration date on the can. The label says "expires 2010" so it should be fine for this up-coming fall trip and I made sure that with my body..........