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15 buffaloes put down after escaping from upstate N.Y. farm

A herd of buffalo was loose from a farm in the town of Schodack. Mike Groll/Associated Press

COEYMANS, N.Y. — Fifteen buffaloes that escaped from a farm were intentionally shot and killed Friday after they dashed past a group of police, crossed a major highway, and ended up near some schools, authorities said.

‘‘The last thing we wanted to do was put these animals down,’’ Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said. ‘‘But it wasn’t a safe scene.’’

Three men hired by the farm opened fire on the animals Friday afternoon in woods in the town of Coeymans, about 10 miles south of the capital.

Bethlehem police Lieutenant Thomas Heffernan said the decision was made after experts agreed tranquilizers would not be effective and no portable corrals or trailers could hold the animals.

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They escaped Thursday from a farm across the Hudson River in the Rensselaer County town of Schodack. The owner believes they swam across the river to the town of Bethlehem, where they wandered across a busy stretch of Interstate 87 and into neighboring Coeymans.

The killing of the buffaloes, which were confined in a stream bed, turned chaotic at the start, with deputies detaining a hunter who refused their order to finish off one of the three that was initially shot.

Apple said the wounded animal was floundering in the water. ‘‘We wanted that animal down,’’ he said, and the man continued instead to shoot blindly into the brush at the other retreating buffaloes.

‘‘It was turning into the Wild, Wild West,’’ Apple said. ‘‘It was ridiculous.’’

The hunter was detained but hasn’t been charged, Apple said. It’s not clear why the hunter refused to shoot the wounded buffalo.

The buffaloes came from GEM Farms, an operation that has been raising buffaloes for their meat since 1973. Authorities said some buffaloes that escaped with the others were killed Thursday. Heffernan said the owner had the right to kill the buffaloes.

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Thomas Gallagher, a Cornell Cooperative Extension large-animal expert who has worked with GEM and who consulted with authorities Friday, said tranquilizers are not effective against buffaloes because of their thick hides and doses need to be so high they are generally lethal.

Shooters took aim at a herd of buffalo in a creek on Friday in Coeymans, N.Y.Mike Groll/Associated Press
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple yelled at a man who was shooting at a herd of buffalo.Mike Groll/Associated Press
Law enforcement officials stood in a driveway near the herd of buffalo.Mike Groll/Associated Press
A herd of buffalo ran through a yard adjacent to the New York State Thruway in Bethlehem, N.Y. Mike Groll/Associated Press
Mike Groll/Associated Press
About 15 of the animals got loose Thursday from a farm in the Rensselaer County town of Schodack.Mike Groll/Associated Press
Mike Groll/Associated Press
A herd of buffalo crossed a road. Mike Groll/Associated Press

Globe correspondent Megan McKee contributed to this story.