Father and son killed by water buffalo on family farm, inquest hears
Video report by Rural Affairs Correspondent Hannah Thomas
A father and son died after being impaled by a water buffalo at their family soap-making farm in Monmouthshire, an inquest has heard.
Ralph Jump, 57, and his son Peter, 19, suffered fatal injuries when they were attacked alongside daughter Isabel, 22, who survived the incident.
The inquest heard how father-of-three Mr Jump was dragged down the field by the bull, named Yolo, on May 5 last year, before Peter tried to save him.
The family were in the kitchen when they saw that a hay ring in the field outside had been pushed against an electric fence and Mr Jump went out to move it.
Wife and mother Josephine said in a statement that she was preparing food when Isabel came into the kitchen shouting that Yolo was "pushing dad down the field" and quickly rushed outside after getting hold of a stick.
"I screamed at Isabel to phone an ambulance and I could hear that he was groaning," she said.
Josephine said she could see that her husband was unconscious but still groaning when son Peter turned up with an iron bar.
The inquest heard that "very large" four-year-old Yolo did not like son Peter, and would "stick his head up and watch" when the teenager was nearby.
Josephine said she had not wanted her son to enter the field, but when he did the bull "got him".
She added that when she went back to husband John she could see that he had died.
"When I got back to him I realised he had gone," she said.
"I couldn't hear him and I knew that he had gone."
The inquest heard how the bull then charged at Isabel, who was on the phone to emergency services, and left her with a serious leg injury.
It then turned its attention back to Peter, before firearms officers arrived and shot the animal, causing it to run to the other side of the field.
Emergency services attended the scene and noted that Peter had "an obvious hole in his neck".
Mr Jump was pronounced dead at the scene at the farm in Gwehelog, and was later found to have suffered multiple injuries to his chest, including smaller puncture wounds.
Peter was airlifted taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, but died later that evening.
The court was told there were "no suspicious circumstances" in either of the deaths.
Mr Jump - who was recovering after a heart attack last year - rented the idyllic country farm near Usk, Gwent, to start a sustainable buffalo soap business with his family.
Also managing director of a heating company in Caldicot, he hand-reared the buffalo at their three-acre farm along with his youngest two children.
Isabel organised the sales for the Bufalina Soap Company, while Peter worked full-time on the farm while home from university due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Senior coroner Caroline Saunders said the circumstances surrounding both deaths were "unnatural".
The inquest in Newport continues.