- SPRUCE GROVE -- There are
hundreds of buffalo on Jim and Linda Sautner's ranch but only Bailey is
standing in the living room.
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- He tosses his head. The living room shakes. Several seconds
later, a lamp-shade is still swaying.
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- This does not seem like a good idea, particularly since
their home is rented.
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- But Jim looks at his 740-kilogram pet and shakes his
head. "He is, without a doubt, the world's quietest buffalo."
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- Bailey's docility is one reason he is standing in the
living room. The other is the three-year-old neutered male is a showpiece,
mascot and ambassador of the beleaguered buffalo industry.
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- Buffalo sales to the U.S. halted with the discovery last
year of mad cow disease, killing half the export market. When Canadians
were encouraged to eat beef to support cattle ranchers, domestic sales
fell, too, Linda says.
-
- Bison and buffalo are the scientific and common names
for the same animal.
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- The Sautners opt to call them buffalo because there is
evidence that people are more likely to buy buffalo meat than bison meat,
Linda says.
-
- Whether as house guest, parade participant or any of
the myriad other duties he is called to perform, a buffalo as unusually
tame as Bailey can't help but create interest. He has a folder full of
community newspaper clippings to show for his efforts.
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- Linda nuzzles his wet nose, which is as big as her face.
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- "We're pretty lucky to have an ambassador like you,
sweetie," she says, and gets a tongue full of yuck in return.
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- Bringing a buffalo indoors takes work. Bailey is brought
into the house only for special visitors. He can last an hour or so before
boredom or incontinence sets in.
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- The rest of the time, he sleeps just outside the home,
preferring to be separate from his herdmates. He knows he's different,
Linda says. "He knows he's got us. He'll never be burgers."
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- Bailey is as close as a buffalo gets to tame. Fed from
a bottle after being abandoned by his mother, he never became aggressive
like most buffalo do before their first birthday.
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- Bailey's calm was unheard of, Linda says. At 10 months,
Jim discovered he could lie down with Bailey in the field for a rest. "There
wasn't another 10-month-old buffalo in the world ... that you could do
that with," Linda says.
-
- Obviously, this meant that Jim ought to try bringing
him inside. Most buffaloes are so fearful of confinement that they won't
take a halter, let alone walk in the front door, Linda says.
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- "There's a saying that you can lead a buffalo anywhere
he wants to go."
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- With Bailey, it's just a matter of squeezing his horns
through the door frame.
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- And although Jim keeps a firm hand on the halter, he
says Bailey gets more comfortable with every visit. A nervous buffalo,
Jim reasons, wouldn't have just peed on the floor. Twice.
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- - dlazin@thejournal.canwest.com
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- © Copyright 2004 Edmonton Journal
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- http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/story.asp?id
=5AE60BB1-2330-4156-8BD0-B63B616CB494
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