Posted on 07/08/2003 11:27:13 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Dallas man gored by buffalo07/08/2003
RAPID CITY, S.D. - A Dallas man was hospitalized after being gored by a buffalo that charged him as he stood near the open driver's door of a minivan in Custer State Park.
Jeff Bunch, 30, of Dallas, suffered a deep puncture wound to his left buttock on Sunday evening and is recovering from surgery to remove a 1-inch long splinter of buffalo horn.
Bunch, 30, and two brothers, David, 27, and Brian, 21, and their mother, Deanna, all of Dallas, were touring the Black Hills park about 6:30 p.m. Their rented minivan was one of about four or five vehicles that came across a large herd of buffalo along a graveled road near the park's popular Wildlife Loop Road.
"It was an awesome sight, observing them grazing," said Deanna, who watched from the van's front passenger seat. "We just don't see that kind of thing in Texas."
Jeff said he was standing near the open driver's door of the van, about 20-25 feet from the nearest animals, far closer than recommended.
"They looked so peaceful just grazing there," said Bunch.
Then without warning, a large buffalo lowered its head and charged, tossing Bunch into the side of the van.
"He was like an NFL linebacker with a horn," Bunch said. "You can't imagine the terror of having one coming at you."
Fearing the buffalo would come after him again, Bunch said he struggled to get inside the van. "I couldn't put any weight on my leg," he said.
Once inside, David drove to the Custer hospital, while Brian applied pressure to Jeff's wound, which was bleeding heavily. He was later taken to Rapid City Regional Hospital where he had surgery to remove the horn fragment.
The buffalo attack was the second this year in the park. On June 16, an unidentified out-of-state motorcycle rider on the Wildlife Loop Road suffered a gore wound to the inside of his thigh after he and his motorcycle were hooked and tossed by a buffalo.
Bunch said he wants to warn other visitors to heed park signs and literature warning of the dangers of the wild animals.
"I just want to get the word out to people who may not be from South Dakota about how dangerous buffalo are," Bunch said Monday from his hospital room. "I wouldn't wish this on anybody. "You have to pay attention to the signs," he said. "Stay in your car and use some binoculars."
Visitors are strongly urged to view or photograph buffalo from inside their cars. If they choose to get out of their cars, a distance of at least 50 yards away from the buffalo is recommended.
Bunch hopes he and his family will be able to continue their vacation. The family flew to Colorado Sunday, where they rented the van and drove to South Dakota, arriving at Custer State Park just two hours before the attack.
He is determined to see Mount Rushmore. "That's what I came up here for," he said.
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/070803dnnatbuffalo.6b20c98d.html
RAPID CITY, S.D. - A Dallas man was hospitalized after being gored by a buffalo that charged him as he stood near the open driver's door of a minivan in Custer State Park.
Jeff Bunch, 30, of Dallas, suffered a deep puncture wound to his left buttock on Sunday evening and is recovering from surgery to remove a 1-inch long splinter of buffalo horn.
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http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2003/07/08/news/local/top/news01.txt
Injured tourist warns: Buffalo are dangerous
By Jim Holland, Journal Staff Writer
RAPID CITY -- Jeff Bunch didn't come to South Dakota intending to become the poster child for buffalo safety.
You could say the title was thrust upon him after he was gored Sunday night by a bison at Custer State Park.
Bunch, 30, of Dallas, Texas, suffered a deep puncture wound to his left buttock after a buffalo charged him as he stood next to his rented minivan.
Now, Bunch is recovering at Rapid City Regional Hospital after surgery to remove a 1-inch long splinter of buffalo horn.
He wants to warn other visitors to heed park signs and literature warning of the dangers of the wild animals.
"I just want to get the word out to people who may not be from South Dakota about how dangerous buffalo are," Bunch said Monday from his hospital room. "I wouldn't wish this on anybody.
"You have to pay attention to the signs," he said. "Stay in your car, and use some binoculars."
Bunch, 30, and two brothers, David Bunch, 27, and Brian Bunch, 21, and their mother, Deanna Bunch, all of Dallas, Texas, were touring the park about 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
Their rented minivan was one of about four or five vehicles that encountered a large herd of buffalo along a graveled road near the park's popular Wildlife Loop Road.
"It was an awesome sight, observing them grazing," said Deanna Bunch, who at the time was seated in the front passenger seat in the van. "We just don't see that kind of thing in Texas."
Bunch said he was standing near the open driver's door of the van, but only about 20 to 25 feet away from the nearest animals — far closer than recommended.
"They looked so peaceful just grazing there," Bunch said.
Without warning, a large buffalo lowered its head and charged.
"He was like a NFL linebacker with a horn," Bunch said. "You can't imagine the terror of having one coming at you."
The buffalo hooked him and tossed him into the side of the minivan.
He tried to get into the van but knew he had been hurt.
"I couldn't put any weight on my leg," he said. "I was afraid he was going to come at me again."
Once Bunch made it inside the van, David Bunch drove to a Custer hospital while Brian Bunch applied pressure to their brother's wound, which was bleeding heavily.
After doctors in Custer determined the severity of his injury, Bunch was taken by ambulance to Rapid City Regional Hospital, where he underwent surgery to remove the horn fragment.
Doctors told Bunch that his wound went clear to the bone.
Bunch praised the medical staff at both the Custer and Rapid City hospitals. "They were just outstanding, even better than I could have imagined," he said.
Although he was in no laughing mood during the ordeal, there was one touch of humor, courtesy of the ambulance crew taking him from Custer to Rapid City.
"They said it was Buffalo 2, Visitors 0," he said.
The remark was in reference to the June 16 goring of an unidentified out-of-state motorcycle rider by a buffalo, also on Wildlife Loop Road.
The rider suffered a gore wound to the inside of his thigh after he and his motorcycle were hooked and tossed by a buffalo.
Calls to Custer State Park officials seeking comment weren't returned by late Monday afternoon, but officials said after the earlier incident that buffalo bulls become especially aggressive when they enter the annual rut about this time of year.
Mature bull buffaloes can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds and can run as fast as a saddle horse for short distances.
Visitors are strongly urged to view or photograph buffalo from inside their cars. If they choose to get out of their cars, a distance of at least 50 yards away from the buffalo is recommended.
Bunch was still in severe pain Monday but hoped that he and his family might be able to continue their vacation.
The family flew to Colorado on Sunday, where they rented the van and drove to South Dakota, arriving at Custer State Park just two hours before the attack.
"What a welcome to South Dakota," Bunch said.
He is determined to see Mount Rushmore. "That's what I came up here for," he said.
The family also planned to travel to Glacier National Park in Montana before driving to Colorado for their return flight to Texas.
"I'm not sure how far he's going to be able to travel," his mother said of Bunch.
Contact Jim Holland at 394-8415 or at jim.holland@rapidcityjournal.com
Copyright © 2003 The Rapid City Journal
Rapid City, SD
Jeff Bunch of Dallas, Texas, holds a 1-inch splinter of horn that was surgically removed after he was gored Sunday evening by a Custer State Park bison. (Jim Holland, Journal staff)
A week or so after we left Yellowstone, one of the ijits got gored good by a buffalo.
Y'all are fast.
There's the S.D. article with a pic of the guy in post #5 . . .
There's one in every crowd.
Speakin' of abnormal Americans from S.D.:
ALEDO - In the shade of his covered arena, Jim Boudreau and his 3-year-old quarter horse get ready for a morning workout. A few laps around the arena to warm up, and then it's face-to-face with the herd. The solidly built bay gelding is a cutting horse in training.
But this morning, he won't actually face cattle. His quarry will be a small herd of shaggy, brown buffalo.
Buffalo, it turns out, have been given a new role in life, a new purpose. Because of their strength and durability, they are finding their way into cutting-horse operations throughout the country.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of these burly, high-shouldered descendants of the Plains are now being used as training aids for horsemen.
"I once had to have about 40 to 50 head of cattle to work the horses," Boudreau said. "Now I've got six buffalo, and I can do everything I need to do."
They're tough. They don't give up, Boudreau said of the black-faced buffalo. A set of cattle would last about a month, he said, but he's had his buffalo since November and they are only getting better.
Other trainers have had the same results.
"Right now, the horse industry represents about 60 [percent] to 80 percent of the demand for buffalo," said Tim Frasier of the Texas Buffalo Exchange in Gainesville. "One buffalo will do the work of 10 cattle if it is trained right. And it will do that for a year."
Frasier sells and leases buffalo to cutting-horse trainers. He is enamored with the wild bison, he admits. Watching them, working them, all helps create a link to the past.
They are a noble beast, he concluded. "They will eat less and give you 10 times the work."
At Shady Oaks Farm, where Boudreau and fellow trainer Connie Klug work their horses, the buffalo have been welcomed. The two trainers say it takes a little time to condition the animals, to get them quieted and accustomed to the horses.
But eventually the buffalo will lose their wild-eyed look and begin to settle in. They can be cut away from the herd, the same as cattle, and they will eagerly attempt to return.
They watch the horses intently, and when they make their move to rejoin the herd they do it quickly and decisively.
Klug says the buffalo work especially well on younger horses. She specializes in riding 2-year-olds, so the majority of her work will be against the buffalo. By the time the horses turn 3, they will ultimately return to facing cattle because that's what they will see in competition.
Still, the cattle will be alternated with the buffalo.
In the pen, just outside Boudreau's arena, the six buffalo look surprisingly gentle. They stand quietly, looking on with calm eyes.
"They're still wild animals," Klug warned. "They're quiet now because we handle them so much, but you can't get up too close to them."
They range in size from approximately 500 or 600 pounds, to one calf that weighs half as much. They are a muddy brown with broad, long black faces and scruffy little beards beneath their chins.
"The only way to get them to work as a training aid is to go through the process of de-stressing them," Frasier said. "They have had 10,000 years of external stimuli. It is very deep, and it's not going to change in our generation."
When Frasier sells or leases his buffalo, each of his customers gets a video that shows how to train the animals.
They are herd animals, he says, and they have to be worked as a herd. He won't sell single animals. He prefers to sell them in groups of three or four.
"One is a bad number for buffalo," he said. "But in a small herd, the buffalo do work. They are all they are supposed to be, and a little more."
Frasier hopes to see the demand for buffalo grow. He hopes that ultimately there will be an increased market for their meat.
At Shady Oaks Farm, that's exactly where the buffalo are headed. Boudreau works the buffalo yearlings, then sends them back to their owner, who passes them on to a feedlot and, eventually, to slaughter.
Frasier sometimes works out a similar deal with his customers, buying back the buffalo for a meat source.
LOL! That's right. Buffalo never attack SUVs!!
I'm just disappointed I didn't tape them just for the laughs.
yeah, that was me.
We were there back in '78. My Dad kept urging me to go stand next to one for a snapshot. The soon to be Mrs TC called me stupid and urged me back.
"Hold muh beer, I'm going to get a good picture of this Buffalo".
That was me :). Few years back? I am talking last summer and this spring.
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