Catapulting dead cows

[AKjeldsen]

I'm working on a thing about medieval warfare at the moment, and was reminded of the old story about how attackers used to catapult dead animals over the walls to cause disease amongst the defenders. This has a faint whiff of myth about it to me, but after a bit of research, I haven't really found anything whether for or against. Is anyone aware of any primary sources or secondary literature that discuss whether something like this actually happened, or perhaps at least suggest some possibilities for further research? Thanks!

 

[Eusebio]

The Black Death is famously said to have come to Europe via the Siege of Kaffa, where the plague-ridden Mongol army catapulted their diseased corpses into the city. Unaware of dead animals ever being used in the same way.

 

[demanvanwezel]

The Black Death is famously said to have come to Europe via the Siege of Kaffa, where the plague-ridden Mongol army catapulted their diseased corpses into the city. Unaware of dead animals ever being used in the same way.

was coming in just to say that, only time I ever heard of that

what I have heard of is intentionally killing cattle in the water supply of the besieged as to poison the water

 

[ap08]

was coming in just to say that, only time I ever heard of that

what I have heard of is intentionally killing cattle in the water supply of the besieged as to poison the water

According to Wikipedia (article on the history of biological warfare) it happened on some occasions:

At the siege of Thun-l'Évêque in 1340, during the Hundred Years' War, the attackers catapulted decomposing animals into the besieged area.[8]

In 1422, during the siege of Karlstein Castle in Bohemia, Hussite attackers used catapults to throw dead (but not plague-infected) bodies and 2000 carriage-loads of dung over the walls.[9]

The last known incident of using plague corpses for biological warfare occurred in 1710, when Russian forces attacked the Swedes by flinging plague-infected corpses over the city walls of Reval (Tallinn).

 

[AKjeldsen]

Thanks for your replies, everyone. The Siege of Caffa is rather interesting. I found this article by Mark Wheelis, which discusses it in more detail. He also wrote a chapter (PDF) in a book about the history of biological warfare (eds. Moon & Geissler, 1999), where he talks a bit about Thun-l'Évêque. This seems to be the only obvious sourced instance of using animal corpses, and even then it's from Froissart, who isn't always a reliable source. Then again, if he mentions it, it might have happened on occasion. There is an earlier writer (Payne-Gallwey, 1907) who claims there are "Numerous references to it…", but that seems pretty questionable.