Wife’s horror as husband and son were savaged to death by raging water buffalo called Yolo
A MUM watched in horror as her husband and teen son were savaged to death by a raging water buffalo called Yolo, an inquest heard today.
Ralph Jump, 57, and Peter, 19, were on the family farm in Monmouthshire where they made luxury soap when the bull attacked.
Mum Josephine was making dinner in the kitchen when her daughter Isabel, 22, ran in screaming: “Yolo is pushing dad down the field”.
The pair rushed out in a desperate attempt to distract the raging animal as Peter tried to save his dad.
Gun cops managed to shoot the beast using rifles and shotguns but Ralph couldn’t be saved and was declared dead at the scene while Peter passed away shortly after in hospital.
Josephine told an inquest today how he watched as her husband was “rolled by the bull down the field” after being gored by its horns.
‘I KNEW HE HAD GONE’
She added: “I screamed at Isabel to phone an ambulance and I could hear that he was groaning.”
The mum said Peter bravely entered the enclosure even though four-year-old Yolo didn’t like him.
She revealed the buffalo then “started going for Peter and got him” and also attacked Isabel, who was badly injured as she tried to help.
Josephine said when she went back to husband John she could see he had passed away.
She told the hearing: “When I got back to him I realised he had gone.
“I couldn’t hear him and I knew that he had gone.”
TRAGIC DEATHS
Josephine discovered her husband had died at the scene and later that night found out Peter had died at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
Ralph’s cause of death was multiple injuries caused by trauma with medics believing ischemic heart disease could have contributed.
Peter, who underwent emergency surgery to remove part of his small bowel died following bleeding on his lungs.
The inquest was told there were “no suspicious circumstances” in either deaths but the coroner said both were “unnatural”.
Jurors heard Ralph had rented the farm to start a buffalo soap business with his family after suffering a heart attack.
The marketing director hand-reared the animals with his two children and the family began selling the Bufalina Soaps for up to £42 last Christmas.
Josephine said: “After about two years we decided to purchase the buffalo.
“My husband had extensive experience with raising cattle.”
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The couple had been renting the farm for six years before the tragic attack took place.
The jury must decide if there were failures in the working procedures at the farm and if appropriate safety steps had been taken.
The inquest at Newport continues.
