--- title: Escaped Buffalo Gunned Down Outside of Albany description: A small herd of buffalo escaped from a farm in upstate New York on Thursday, roaming free across roads and through rivers before local authorities gave the signal to open fire. canonical: https://time.com/3835322/escaped-buffalo-gunned-down-new-york/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-24T22:36:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:19:08.002Z og:title: Buffalo Herd Gunned Down After Escaping From a Farm og:description: The animals posed a threat to public safety, authorities said og:url: https://time.com/3835322/escaped-buffalo-gunned-down-new-york/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbabf6a413f3fd080/6987ecd6428a9e738cccb16f/buffalos-albany.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: A herd of buffalo cross a road in Bethlehem, N.Y., on Apr. 24, 2015, og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Buffalo Herd Gunned Down After Escaping From a Farm twitter:description: The animals posed a threat to public safety, authorities said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbabf6a413f3fd080/6987ecd6428a9e738cccb16f/buffalos-albany.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Buffalo Herd Gunned Down After Escaping From a Farm  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Apr 24, 2015 10:36 PM UTC  A herd of buffalo cross a road in Bethlehem, N.Y., on Apr. 24, 2015 A herd of buffalo cross a road in Bethlehem, N.Y., on Apr. 24, 2015Mike Groll—AP  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Apr 24, 2015 10:36 PM UTC A small herd of buffalo escaped from a farm in upstate New York on Thursday, roaming free across roads and through rivers until local authorities gave the signal to open fire. The herd of 15 escaped buffalo reportedly forged the Hudson River and crossed a heavily trafficked interstate some 20 minutes out of Albany, Fox News [reports](http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/24/police-chasing-small-herd-buffalo-on-loose-near-new-york-state-thruway/). They were pursued by police, hunters and local experts, who agreed that there was no effective way of tranquilizing or containing the animals. Fearing the risk to public safety, authorities asked hunters to gun the herd down. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3835322/escaped-buffalo-gunned-down-new-york/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3835322/escaped-buffalo-gunned-down-new-york/"},"headline":"Buffalo Herd Gunned Down After Escaping From a Farm","datePublished":"2015-04-24T22:36:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:19:08.002Z","description":"The animals posed a threat to public safety, authorities said","url":"https://time.com/3835322/escaped-buffalo-gunned-down-new-york/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbabf6a413f3fd080/6987ecd6428a9e738cccb16f/buffalos-albany.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbabf6a413f3fd080/6987ecd6428a9e738cccb16f/buffalos-albany.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A herd of buffalo cross a road in Bethlehem, N.Y., on Apr. 24, 2015,","caption":"A herd of buffalo cross a road in Bethlehem, N.Y., on Apr. 24, 2015,","creditText":"Mike Groll—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3835322/escaped-buffalo-gunned-down-new-york/","name":"Buffalo Herd Gunned Down After Escaping From a Farm"}}]}] ```