In February 1958 there was a police shooting on Isbister Street in St. Charles. An RCMP officer shot an unarmed individual who was running away. The officer claimed he was unpredictable and posed a danger to others.
DEATH ON THE PLAINS
Single Bullet Ends A Wild Buffalo Hunt
By Roger WhittakerWinnipeg Free Press, February 20, 1958
A seemingly thoroughly-bored, 2,000 pound bull buffalo yawningly backed out of its huge crate at Assiniboine park zoo Wednesday, butted heads with its skittish mate and suddenly exploded into a ton of stampeding fury.
Five hours later, in a 10-mile distant wind-swept farm field the chill crack of a seven millimeter Mauser rifle put an end to what started as an official parks board welcome for its two new bison. Four more shots were fired, but the big bull was killed by the first.
The rifle bullet caught the speeding buffalo in the neck, sending it plunging to the earth in mid-stride. The shot had been fired from 150 yards away by a Charleswood RCMP officer Emile J. Kiss, who squeezed the trigger upon orders from G. W. Malaher, director of the game branch of the department of mines and resources.
Mr. Malaher called for the buffalo to be shot after he saw it had reached open farmland and couldn’t be corralled.
“It was heading for the Interlake country and I didn’t think anybody would be able to catch it,” said Mr. Malaher. “Also, it was practically worn out.”
The constable was partially leaning over the hood of his cruiser car when he sighted and fired. After the bull collapsed, he ran up and sent four more rapid-fire shots into the still twitching mass.
Mr. Malaher described the constable’s shot as an expert and a clean one. “It killed the bull immediately; the other shots were to make sure,” he said.
The chase ended at 4:30 p.m., just off Isbister street and about three miles north of Kirkfield park.
T. R. Hodgson, parks superintendent, said Wednesday night it is not known if a new bull will be acquired.
“One thing is for sure, however,” Mr. Hodgson said, “before we get another one we’ll be positive our fencing is strong enough.” The bull, largest the zoo has ever had, was imported along with the smaller cow from Alberta’s Elk Island park to improve the buffalo stock here.
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| The story made the front page of the February 20, 1958 Winnipeg Free Press, with this photo across four columns. |
The fast-paced chain of events started in an enclosure in the zoo’s buffalo pen. A parks’ board truck drove up carrying the crated bison. Waiting to greet the new arrivals were parks officials and employees.
The chutes on the crates were opened and, nervously and jittery, the cow ponderously began backing out. The bull, however, was lying on the floor of the crate and refused to move.
Dr. Richard Glover, history professor at the University of Manitoba and president of the Manitoba Zoological Society, who witnessed the escape told the Free Press later:
“I never saw a buffalo so unexcited. He was acting like someone supremely bored.” He could not explain the bull’s stampede.
A parks employee gave the bull a couple of swats across the rump and the buffalo arose and lazily backed out of the crate. When his hooves hit ground he bumped heads with his mate. At that instant he spun around and, his massive head down, charged the 10-foot high enclosing fence. At the same time the cow was also running back and forth.
THIS TIME IT GAVE
Thwarted on his first attempt, the snorting bull reared back and let loose at the fence again. This time it gave and the buffalo, his tail high, thundered west. He was last seen doing about sixty.
In the meantime, the cow trotted over to the other buffalo in the herd. By that time the rampaging bull was roaring across Roblin boulevard and then through front and back yards.
Mr. and Mrs. James Stanley, 198 Elmhurst road, were sitting in their kitchen eating lunch when Mr. Stanley looked out the window and saw the buffalo ambling through the yard next door and disappearing into thick brush between Elmhurst and Royal roads and Hedley and Ravelston avenues.
Some time later he emerged on Royal road, veered north across the Charleswood golf club and crossed the ice on Assiniboine river at the foot of Ridgedale road.
On the other side of the river he plunged through farm fields and brush and was not reported to RCMP, who were following by car and horseback, until he was crossing the Trans-Canada highway.
Here he skidded across the pavement on his hind end while a RCMP constable watched from his cruiser.
At Saskatchewan avenue, a few blocks east of Isbister, the buffalo doubled back and ambled west to the intersection of Isbister and Saskatchewan and, according to one pursuing Mountie, “went through every fence he came to.”
With RCMP and parks officials in hot pursuit the bull galloped along the west side of Isbister, cut across the street about a mile and a half north of Saskatchewan, wandered through brush, re-crossed Isbister and was lost from sight.
When the buffalo was reported in the clear, police gave chase. The bull leaped a low wooden fence and a RCMP cruiser jounced onto the frozen stubbly field after it.
Running parallel to the bull, the cruiser suddenly stopped, Constable Kiss sprang out, aimed and fired. The buffalo collapsed, as if it had hit a stone wall.
The pell-mell chase itself was not without moments of topsy-turvy humor.
At one stage, the buffalo was bowling high, wide and handsome down the centre of Kirkfield Park road. A truck was coming the other way. The truck-driver, eyes wide, watched the buffalo charging straight at his truck.
He did the logical thing. He swung his truck into the ditch and slammed on the brakes. Police said the bull, seeing the truck stopped and apparently not a thing of life, lost interest in his “prey” and trotted off.
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| A sorry end to a valiant escape effort. |
He Calls For A Stronger Buffalo Fence
Winnipeg Free Press, February 20, 1958Stronger fencing circling the Assiniboine park zoo’s buffalo pen was called for Thursday by Dr. Richard Glover, president of the Zoological Society of Manitoba.
Dr. Glover urged the new installation following Wednesday’s escape of a newly-arrived 2,000 pound bull buffalo.
“It is easy to be wise after the event, but the possibility of escape never occurred to me,” said Dr. Glover. “The zoo’s late bull charged me on several occasions in the rutting season – when I was on one side of the fence and he the other. But he never hit the fence. He always stopped short of a collision with it.”
Dr. Glover said he therefore concluded the zoo’s fencing to be “adequate.”
GREAT LOSS
“The escape of the buffalo yesterday was a good news story, but it was also a great loss. Our herd has become inbred and that bull was needed to provide new blood … he cost a lot to fetch here.
“The new blood is still needed, but it is now a question whether we can get a new bull till we have looked to our fences. A new fence will be expensive. It must be climbable as well as strong, because men must sometimes enter the enclosure, and they may have to get out fast.”
Dr. Glover said emphatically the runaway bull was not frightened.
HE WAS BORED
“Instead he was so bored with the whole business of unloading that he was actually lying down in his crate all the while that a team of men were shoving and heaving to get him off the truck.
“He remained lying down after his crate was on the ground and opened. But, once out, he started to canter up and down, as newly released animals often do.”
The acquisition of the new bison was aimed at putting new blood into the zoo herd. Continued inbreeding produces undersized animals.
Here's the right way to treat majestic bison:
