Sheriff: Killing of loose bison was correct call

COEYMANS, N.Y. (AP) — An upstate New York sheriff stands by his decision to have 15 runaway bison shot and killed last week, but he says he should have had his own personnel shoot the animals instead of letting others do it.

Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple tells The Daily Gazette of Schenectady that a better course of action would have been to have the sheriff office’s emergency response team shoot the bison Friday, a day after they escaped from an Albany-area farm.

Apple says he couldn’t vouch for the training of three men sent by the buffalo farm’s owners to shoot the animals. He likened the shooting scene to the “Wild West” and at one point tried to call it off before finding out it was over.

He says the animals weren’t put down humanely.