A small herd of 15 bison escaped from a ranch in Schodack, New York, swam the Hudson River, and
crossed the New York State Thruway.
Authorities said Friday the herd was shot and killed because they became a danger after crossing the New York State Thruway.
Three men hired by the farm were cleared to open fire Friday afternoon in a stream in woods in the town of Coeymans, about 10 miles south of the capital.
Police say the decision was made after experts agreed tranquilizers would not be effective and no portable corrals could hold the animals.
Authorities say 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.
They were born in captivity, but they wanted to get beyond the fence, and they headed west, towards the Great Plains that their kind once dominated in herds numbering in the tens of millions.
They were free for only a few hours. But they were free.
They should be a symbol to us, that freedom is worth dying for.
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