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PADDOCK LAKE — The owner of a herd of bison that escaped in western Kenosha County Saturday was heartbroken that he was forced to have a number of the animals killed, but relieved no one in the community was injured.

“It’s terrible. Terrible,” said Tom Pierson of the events of the day. “But there are worse things.”

After working to try to capture the animals most of the day, seven bison in the herd were herded back into their pasture. But after repeated efforts to move nine others that were found in a wooded area off Highway K near Paddock Lake failed, the owner made the decision to have them euthanized rather than risk injury to drivers and to residents of a nearby subdivision. The animals were shot.

“These guys can run 30 mph; they can stop on a dime,” Pierson said. “They can be very aggressive animals, and they do whatever they want to do.”

Pierson and his wife own the 60-acre Pierson Bison Farm in Paris, where they have been raising bison for five years.

On Saturday at about 8 a.m., he said he went to check on his herd of 17 animals as he does each day and realized all of the animals were gone.

Overnight, a tree had fallen and knocked down a portion of the 8-foot-high pasture fence.