Where the Buffalo roam

[blackwolfe]

This critter was wandering around my neigborhood.  The picture in the first article is about 150-200 feet from my house.  I wasn't home when it happened, and just found out about it Sunday.  I don't get the local paper anymore.  I heard this story made it to Fox, CNN, USA Today, and other major news sources.  This animal covered a lot of ground in a fairly high density housing residential area.  I understand that 51 minutes passed from the first 911 call until the officer shot it 12 times with an AR15.  The river it swam is fairly wide, it's not the Mississippi, but is not a wading creek either.  The river is running very fast right now and there are actually flood warnings for it further upstream in the county.
I can't figure out how to make the picture post here, so you'll have to click on the link to see it.
The links are from the local paper and I'm not sure how long they will be active.  It's pretty interesting to see all the comments being made about this.  Reminds me of the time about 30 years ago one of the cops in the area shot a cat under someones car 9 times because everytime the lady tried to get into her car the cat would come after her.


http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2009/04/05/local_news/doc49d83cda79ffa266768956.txt


http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2009/04/09/local_news/414221.txt

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=st.+joseph+%2B+bison&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=qrniSZ_6A5rnnQfqwrWvCQ&sa=X&oi=news_result&resnum=1&ct=title


Buffalo shot in St. Joe


 
Mark Parren photo The bison runs across Morton Avenue near Lakeland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph. The young herbivore had escaped from a Benton Township farm after beeing spooked, then swam across the St. Joseph River before making its way into St. Joseph. After charging a St. Joseph police officer, the bison was shot and killed on Leco Corp. property on Hilltop Road.
Bison escapes from farm in Benton Twp., swims across river before being killed on Leco Corp. property
By WILLIAM F. AST III
H-P Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, April 5, 2009 1:09 PM EDT
ST. JOSEPH — Police had to shoot and kill a runaway bison in St. Joseph on Saturday after they were unable to get the big animal off the streets and it charged a police officer.

Sgt. Robert Banasik of the St. Joseph Police Department said the bison could not be controlled and was becoming a serious hazard. It had escaped from a farm in Benton Township, and its owners said it had jumped a fence after something spooked it, he added.

“It was a risk to public safety,” Banasik said. “It was running through traffic, vehicles were stopping, it was running through residential neighborhoods, and it ran past a playground that was occupied. We had made an attempt to use our cars to try to force back into the ravine, and it wouldn’t stay there. Then, of course, when the officer got out of his vehicle and it charged, you had no choice.”

Police got a call about the bison from a motorist at 3:20 p.m., Banasik said. The caller said it was on Niles Road in St. Joseph Township, around the bridge over Hickory Creek.

The bison actually panicked a herd of deer, and that resulted in a car-deer accident, Banasik said.  Police saw the bison run into a car and run into a house, Banasik said. Banasik said police killed the bison on Leco Corp. property on Hilltop Road near Cleveland Avenue at 4 p.m.

It was a day that Banasik won’t forget soon.

“It was a very odd sight to see a buffalo running through the streets of St. Joseph,” Banasik said.

Dispatchers said the bison swam across the St. Joseph River after escaping from the farm. Berrien County Animal Control removed the carcass, Banasik said. St. Joseph Township Police Department Officer Ron Sarratore assisted city police, he said.

Contact William F. Ast at wast@TheH-P.com.Archives > Local News
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Police defend bison killing


 
Mark Parren photo Gracie the bison runs on Veronica Drive past Zion Evangelical United Church of Christ during her scamper Saturday in St. Joseph. The animal, which fled a Benton Township farm, was shot and killed by police.
Animal escaped from Benton Twp. farm owned by former Chicago politician Vrdolyak
By DAVID WARFIELD - H-P Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, April 9, 2009 11:28 AM EDT
ST. JOSEPH - St. Joseph police said Tuesday it was a public safety necessity to shoot and kill the 400-pound bison calf that escaped a Benton Township farm, swam the St. Joseph River and ran loose in St. Joseph on Saturday.

"Sgt. (Robert) Banasik gave the order to shoot because it was posing a safety hazard to the public. ... It definitely was a hazard to the public," Capt. Mike Hollacher told The Herald-Palladium.

The bison came from a farm owned by Ed Vrdolyak, a Chicago attorney. Vrdolyak was once a Chicago alderman and a powerful chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party.

Chasing the buffalo

St. Joseph Township police were dispatched to the area around Niles Road and Lincoln Avenue around 3:20 p.m. Saturday after someone saw the animal running in traffic. An officer followed the animal up Niles Road toward St. Joseph, then behind the businesses on Niles Avenue and into the neighborhood around Morton Avenue, where city police joined the pursuit.

Police followed the bison for about 30 minutes, trying to corner it into someplace out of the way of traffic. Along the way, the animal ran into a house, hit a car and scared drivers and pedestrians. It also frightened a herd of deer in a ravine near the Lakeland Regional Medical Center. One of the deer ran into a nearby neighborhood and collided with a car.

The bison led police west across the busy southern St. Joseph business district to the neighborhood around South State Street, then headed south toward Hilltop Road.

Four officers - three from St. Joseph and the township officer - cornered the bison in a grassy area on the LECO Corp. property northeast of the intersection of Hilltop Road and Cleveland Avenue at about 3:55 p.m.

The animal must have been "scared to death," said Val Grimes, manager of Berrien County Animal Control. "I mean, it was on the radio, so all these people showed up. They followed it for blocks with a cop car."

'A really, really good shot'

When the frightened bison charged, city Patrolman Paul Komdeur knelt down, fixed his aim and dropped the animal with multiple rounds from an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

"He was a really, really good shot. ... The officer did everything he needed to do," said one witness, Bill Holbert, 17, of Benton Harbor.

Holbert, a hunter, said Komdeur had to shoot the animal in the chest because the kind of bullets used were not likely to penetrate a bison's thick skull.

But first, Komdeur and the other officers had to corner the bison into a place where they could fire on it safely with minimal chance of hitting a person.

Police said they cornered the calf against a fence on the southwestern side of the property.

When Komdeur knelt and fired, it was in the direction of the Bank of America building at 3125 Cleveland.

The buffalo was 25-30 yards away and charging "full speed" at Komdeur when he started shooting, police said.

It slowed down after the first several shots, was hit by several more shots, then finally dropped to its side about 10 feet from the officer, police said. It laid kicking for a few seconds, and Komdeur delivered three or four more shots to the calf's lungs to end its misery.

A total of 12 shots were fired. It appeared they all reached their target.

Tranquilizer darts not an option

Berrien County Animal Control was called when the bison was first spotted, and an officer was en route when the animal was shot, police said.

Grimes said it might have been possible for experts to capture the buffalo without killing it, but that police, "dealt as they saw fit at the time."

The St. Joseph police do not have tranquilizer darts, Hollacher said. Neither does Animal Control, Grimes said.

"They have been banned for many, many years in this state," she said.

Grimes said it would not be easy or safe to try to stop a buffalo with a tranquilizer dart.

"They're very furry; they have a very tough hide. It would probably bounce off."

She said tranquilizer guns are not very accurate and are almost useless at more than more than 50 feet.

If a stray dart hit someone or missed the buffalo and was left behind where someone might step on it, "that would be lethal to a child, or even a full grown adult," Grimes said.

No buffalo barbecue

The buffalo was dead when Animal Control officer Robert Pounders arrived. Another officer came with a pickup truck and hauled away the carcass. Contrary to suggestions in some Herald-Palladium Web site comments, no plans were made for a buffalo barbecue.

"It's been disposed of. We buried it," Grimes said.

The buffalo came from Vrdolyak's farm at 400 Nickerson Ave. in Benton Township. A woman who works there, Mary Fox, told police the animal jumped the fence when it got "spooked" by something.

"It's over and done with," Fox said when asked for details by The Herald-Palladium.

Vrdolyak told the Chicago Sun-Times that the bison, named "Gracie," was a gift to his grandchildren.

The Herald-Palladium was unable to reach Vrdolyak on Tuesday.

Saturday was not the first time a large animal has escaped from his farm.

Five European fallow deer got loose in 2006, alarming the Michigan Department of Natural Resources because they were non-native species and might spread disease. Two of the deer were hit by cars, two were captured and one went missing.

Vrdolyak made national news last November when he was charged in Chicago in a scheme to get kickbacks from a real estate deal.

The 71-year-old pleaded guilty for conspiring to commit mail fraud. He was sentenced to pay a $50,000 fine and serve five years of probation.

St. Joseph police said they do not plan to seek charges in connection with the loose bison.

Contact David Warfield at dwarfield@TheH-P.com.

[fightingquaker13]

You know....I'm not an animal rights guy, I like to hunt and I am not one to second guess the guys on the ground, but still was this really necessary? I mean we weren't dealing with an escaped tiger here, just a basic bovine.
Se la guerre.
FQ13

[Pathfinder]

Having raised and butchered 3 buffalo myself, and even tho I was not there, the officer's decision to shoot it was right. Saying they're just a bovine is like saying the Titanic was just a boat that sank. Kinda misses the main points.

My buffalo were young, looking like this one, maybe a few months older when I shot them. I would not go into the corral where they were after the bull who had been bucket fed had bumped me from behind. They are tough, aggressively migrating animals, and will jump anything - or at least try. I saw one of mine jump a fence from standing still. On the run, they tried to jump my 6 foot range panels - and did.

I had to shoot one of the cows on the run because she would not come near the trailer. These are not cows (how have their own characteristics BTW, like a lovely habit of kicking you) and you cannot work them or care for them as you would a cow, they are different. Buffalo, no matter how nicely cared for, are wild animals. You ignore that at your peril. One of my former neighbors lost a cousin just because he was standing on the wrong side of a gate as they were moving 3 buffalo into the corral, and one of them gutted the man with his horn as he ran past. Just tucked his head and sliced with the horn.

The decision to shoot was the right one.

[tombogan03884]

Thank you Pathfinder for the clarification. I think FQ's question came from honest ignorance.
There have been several cases of tourists being killed in National parks because they thought the same way and went to stand beside these wild animals for photo's.

[Timothy]

It's too bad it didn't happen in my neighborhood, my freezer is full of ham today but I'd chuck the ham for a freezer full of bison!

Yummy!  And a young tender little fella at that!....

(BWolfe is right, the St. Joseph is not a creek by any definition and one of the best steelhead rivers in the country...)

[Sponsor]

[tt11758]

I thought those EVIL "assault weapons" were only good for killing PEOPLE!

Oops............missed a drop of sarcasm.

[shooter32]

"It's been disposed of. We buried it," Grimes said.


What a waste   That would have been some good eating

[fightingquaker13]

Pathfinder
I stand corrected here. I have a lot of experience working with cattle but none with bison. I just asumed that domesticated bison were pretty much the same
FQ1

[blackwolfe]

Apparently the community is now getting threats about this buffalo shooting, with the schools being mentioned in the threats.  The schools called students homes yesterday to inform them that extra percausions are being taken.  A year or so ago when there was a cougar shot in Chicago there was an attept to burn down King Richard Daly's, mayor of Chicago, vacation house in the south part of the county.  (They got the wrong building).   We have a lot of Chicago people around here as we are just around the corner of Lake Michigan from them and this is their playground. 

 I saw a TV show a few years back about a guy who raised them on his ranch.  Although, most the time he worked with them they were not a problem, he said he never turned his back to them.

I wonder if 12 guage. slugs would have been more effective.  I'm trying to find out what loads the police used.

St. Joseph is situated between the St. Joseph River and Lake Michigan .  The river and the lake roughly parallel each other with the river hooking west into Lake Michigan at the North end of town.  These geogrphic feature form basically a point that funnels wildlfe into town.  The city itself has a fairly high density of buildings with out much open space except for the corridor along the river some of the lake.  There are some ravines that run through town with drainage creeks.  The area to the south of town while fairly populated is far more open.  When I was a kid, we would occasionally have a deer in town.  With the explosion of the deer herd we now have a resident population of deer living in the ravines and along the river.  It's not unusual to see deer in town now with a few deer/car accidents.  I nearly hit a couple on my bicycle last summer.  Even see an occasional coyote.  I have seen one turkey in town and skunks, coons, possums, rabbits, crows, ducks, and geese are common.

[fightingquaker13]

Apparently the community is now getting threats about this buffalo shooting, with the schools being mentioned in the threats.  The schools called students homes yesterday to inform them that extra percausions are being taken.  A year or so ago when there was a cougar shot in Chicago there was an attept to burn down King Richard Daly's, mayor of Chicago, vacation house in the south part of the county.  (They got the wrong building).   We have a lot of Chicago people around here as we are just around the corner of Lake Michigan from them and this is their playground. 

 I saw a TV show a few years back about a guy who raised them on his ranch.  Although, most the time he worked with them they were not a problem, he said he never turned his back to them.

I wonder if 12 guage. slugs would have been more effective.  I'm trying to find out what loads the police used.

St. Joseph is situated between the St. Joseph River and Lake Michigan .  The river and the lake roughly parallel each other with the river hooking west into Lake Michigan at the North end of town.  These geogrphic feature form basically a point that funnels wildlfe into town.  The city itself has a fairly high density of buildings with out much open space except for the corridor along the river some of the lake.  There are some ravines that run through town with drainage creeks.  The area to the south of town while fairly populated is far more open.  When I was a kid, we would occasionally have a deer in town.  With the explosion of the deer herd we now have a resident population of deer living in the ravines and along the river.  It's not unusual to see deer in town now with a few deer/car accidents.  I nearly hit a couple on my bicycle last summer.  Even see an occasional coyote.  I have seen one turkey in town and skunks, coons, possums, rabbits, crows, ducks, and geese are common.

When I saw the first couple of lines of your post I thought this was a joke. That people were worried about killer bison (rogue pandas going on school shooting sprees. Now I realize that this is sadly serious. While I initially questioned whether the cop needed to shoot the beast (due to a mispercetion of domesticated bison) I am happy to give your local PD a green light on animal rights whackos. And yes, a 12 gauge slug would work well on them also.
FQ13