Nashville residents herd water buffalo on the loose in neighborhood

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Nashville neighbor shared video with News 2 of multiple water buffalo that escaped their enclosure twice over the weekend.

Sunday evening, the man — who asked to only be referred to by his first name, Jeff — recorded a video of about a dozen water buffalo roaming the streets of his neighborhood, located ten minutes east of downtown.

“Someone left a gate open in their [ farmer’s ] front yard and they don’t have another fence to keep them in and they got out,” Jeff said.

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Two days prior, according to Jeff, the water buffalo were also on the loose from the farm.

It is an accident neighbors have avoided by putting up fences around their homes.

“It’s always interesting when I tell people water buffalo live in my backyard. They are always like what are water buffalo?” Jeff said.

Water buffalo are native to Asia and used for meat and milk.

Jeff moved into the neighborhood back in 2016. He said it was about a year later when the farmer brought water buffalo to the pond behind Jeff’s house.

It is important for people to be aware of the animals. Recently, trespassers jumped the fence and went into the water, Jeff said. “If you don’t respect them and their area it could be very dangerous, especially at night. I wouldn’t go anywhere near them. There is a reason why there is a fence there.”

A fence that he hopes will continue to stay closed, after he helped herd the animals out of the neighborhood.

“We were going forward and backward trying to keep them in that certain area so they wouldn’t go anywhere until the farmer came to retrieve them,” Jeff said.

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News 2 spoke to the farmer over the phone, who said water buffalo thrive on the property, as opposed to other cattle, because of the wetland.

The Tennessee Department of Agriculture encourages people who observe roaming livestock to report it to the agricultural crime unit or local law enforcement.

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