Maryland man injured after pet buffalo attacks him

Man injured after pet buffalo attacks him

Buffalo charges at and injures a staple of St. Mary?s County neighborhood. Dick Wildes, 83, has owned buffalo for about 43 years and says something like this has never happened. He was transported to an area hospital with arm and leg injuries and is expected to be OK.

ST. MARY'S COUNTY, Md. - Dick Wildes says at one point, he owned about 50 buffalo, and kept up to 30 on his farm in Hollywood, St. Mary’s County.

In his entire 43-year tenure of owning buffalo, he never had an incident like he did Monday night.

What we know:

He was feeding one of his two buffalo, Indy, when the other, Dozer, charged at him.

"They said it just happened so fast, I did a cartwheel and I saw the sky in the air, next thing I knew I was on the ground," Wildes said.

Wildes suffered serious injuries to his leg and arm, largely from Dozer’s horns.

Fortunately, he was able to make it out of the enclosed area and get to safety.

"It could have been worse. Could have been worse. If I couldn’t get out of there, he could have come at me again, and I could have been in big trouble," Wildes said.

 First responders arrived, helped stabilize Wildes, and he was transported to a hospital via helicopter. 

"The notes were male struck by buffalo. It was one of those, is this really something that I just read? And it was," said Sgt. James Cawley with St. Mary’s EMS.

Community rallies:

This happened around 6:30 a.m. on Monday. Word spread fast around community newspapers and encouragement poured in.

Many in St. Mary’s County know Dick Wildes as a buffalo farmer and were sad to hear about what happened. 

"They’re a landmark," said neighbor Donna Phelan, "A lot of times if we’re trying to tell people where we live, we say we’re right around the corner from the buffalo farm." 

Another neighbor tells FOX 5 it’s common for people to park on weekends and look at the buffalo. At one time, Wildes says he had 30 on the property, now he’s got two.

"We’ve been bringing our children here, now we bring our grandchildren here," said Phelan, who said she was happy Wildes was going to be ok.

 For his part, Wildes says he’s grateful for all the support he’s gotten.

 "I appreciate them with all the comments they’ve made. But it’s also been good for me to have such a good network of friends and family," Wildes said.

What's next:

 Wildes acknowledged this was a sad moment for him. Over the last few years, he’s tried reducing the number of buffalo he has. He’s still processing what happened Monday, but said he’s not sure if he’ll be able to trust being alone with Dozer again.

 He’s still evaluating his options, but said he may have to look for a place to relocate Dozer.