Loose bison in a rural development cause headache

Loose bison east of Edmonton cause concern for residents in rural development
at 19:20 on June 7, 2005, EST.
SYLVIA STROJEK


Bison walk through a backyard in Edmonton
on Tuesday. Fish and wildlife officers, the RCMP
and wardens from nearby Elk Island National Park
were all called in, but didn't intervene because the
bison appear to be from a domestic herd.
(CP/Cindy Ikebuchi)

EDMONTON (CP) - Those bison that roam, oh give them a home.

Three wayward buffalo from a domestic herd caused headaches in a rural development east of Edmonton before they were caught and taken to the stockyards Tuesday. Wilf Gillis, bylaw supervisor for Strathcona County, said he was told the burly beasts - perhaps tired out after at least 24 hours on the lam - didn't resist when a brand inspector finally managed to fence them in and load them onto a transport truck.

"Hopefully, they can be identified and returned to their owner," Gillis said.

But the foot-loose females did cause some damage and concern for residents of Farrell Properties near Sherwood Park during their brief fling with freedom.

The hefty animals, weighing around 350 kilograms (772 pounds) each, were first spotted Monday afternoon raiding the fresh shoots of a rural garden.

"The poor people down the road, they got into their garden and wrecked their garden, and broke some of their trees and shrubs," said Duane Langille, who chased the animals from a friend's driveway at one point.

"One of them had the clothesline . . . in its horns, swinging it around."

There were also reports the animals brushed a police car and a CN Rail truck, but that wasn't confirmed by the RCMP.

Langille said he and his neighbours were frustrated because nobody initially took responsibility for the problem.

He said the RCMP, Fish and Wildlife officers and two wardens from nearby Elk Island National Park came by, but didn't intervene because the animals had private eartags.

"Nobody knew where these . . . buffalo had come from and weren't quite sure what to do with them," Langille said.

"Somebody's got to be responsible or watching these things. They're very dangerous, especially when you've got three of them."

RCMP officers went door to door warning people about the bison and suggested parents walk their children to and from the school bus, he said.

"If the RCMP came to your house and said, 'Walk your kids to school in the morning,' you'd be concerned," Langille said.

Const. Gordon Canning of the Strathcona RCMP acknowledged it was a difficult balancing act for officers.

"Let's face it. I'm not going to walk up to it," he said. "I'm not trained to actually read the tags and find out exactly where they're coming from. That's not what I do in the normal course of duty.

"You could be guaranteed if we were to go out and shoot them, there would be an outcry as well. There's no winning on either side of this."

The RCMP called on the livestock identification service to send out a brand inspector to identify the animals by their tags.

The shaggy beasts with the barrel-shaped chests and disconcertingly pointy horns thundered across the plains by the millions 200 years ago before they were slaughtered to the verge of extinction. Their numbers are healthier now, but individuals from private herds are no longer considered wild, so there was no reason for Fish and Wildlife to get involved, said spokesman John Lear.

"It's really like an agriculture, livestock issue."

Except that bison are more dangerous than your average cow.

"Our guidelines generally are for people to remain a 100-metre distance - about three bus lengths - (away)," said Murray Heap from Elk Island National Park. "Don't approach any closer than that.

"Even the domestic ones are still basically a wild animal."

Heap said the bison did not come from the park, which covers almost 200 square kilometres and has about 1,000 plains and wood bison of its own.