Police say the decision was made after experts agreed tranquilizers would not be effective and no portable corrals could hold the animals.
George Mesick, the farm's owner, told Albany's Times Union they must have swam across the river to the town of Bethlehem, where they wandered Friday morning between Interstate 87 and the river's west bank.
The herd crossed a local road at about 11:15 a.m. and ambled onto the Thruway in a spot 10 miles south of Albany. Drivers slowed to avoid the buffalo.
The animals safely crossed the northbound lanes and then trotted south on the shoulder into some woods.
Mesick had previously admitted he had little hope they would be captured unharmed.
'There is a zero percent chance of getting them back right now I think. I just want to get this done with as fast as possible so that no one gets hurt,' he said earlier on Friday.
He would have tried to bring the herd in himself, but they are wild and not tame. A police helicopter was hovering over them to make sure the group did not split. ā¦...more
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