( CNN ) Fifteen buffalo were shot and killed on Friday after a day on the loose in upstate New York . The chase , which took farmers and police officers from five jurisdictions through forests and over the Hudson River , ended with `` snipers '' from the animals ' farm gunning down the buffalo from the side of the road , according to Lt. Thomas Heffernan of the Bethlehem Police Department . `` It was turning into the wild , wild , West , '' Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple told reporters on Friday . `` It was time to put an end to it . '' Heffernan described the hectic last moments of the chase : . `` They were setting up a perimeter around the animals in the secluded area , they got spooked and they charged through our guys , '' Heffernan said . The herd then stampeded across the interstate highway , breaking through a wire fence . `` Once they crossed over the freeway , that really escalated it , '' Heffernan said . `` There was no choice ; the animals had to be destroyed . '' The bull of the heard weighed over 1,300 pounds and a collision with a car could easily have been fatal , Heffernan said . New York State Police helicopters were called in and nearby school districts were alerted to keep all students inside , Heffernan said . Four men from GEM Farms in Schodack , New York , from where the buffalo escaped , were on the scene by a ravine in Coeymans , New York , to kill the animals , a decision Heffernan said was n't made lightly , but that was necessary . George Mesick , the 87-year-old owner of the farm , sat in the car listening to the radio as his buffalo were shot . `` Very sad , '' Mesick said . `` I 'm just so glad that they got them before somebody got hurt . '' Twenty-two buffalo escaped from the farm on Thursday -- half the farm 's stock -- including six that were shot Thursday night in Rensselaer County , Mesick said . One buffalo calf was found dead on a road , hit , and not reported , by a driver , Mesick said . Mesick has been raising buffalo for their meat since 1973 , he said , with no escape like this before . `` They love to roam , '' he said . `` They love to get in the big field and go like a son of a gun and that 's what they did yesterday . '' The last buffalo were shot 20 miles from the farm , he said . The herd broke through three strands of high tensile barbed wire to escape the farm , and later swam across the Hudson River , according to Mesick , still surprised . `` They never even had a pond to swim across , '' Mesick said . `` I still ca n't believe it . ''
15 buffalo are shot on Friday after escaping the day before from a farm in Schodack , New York . Police helicopters fly overhead and nearby schools come on fire in the final moments of the escape . The herd breaks through thick layers of barbed wire fencing and crosses the river River during the escape .