Boo Is Home!

We would like to thank every one of you for your amazing support and contributions. They all helped, and Boo is home. His enclosure matches their specifications, and he is happy to be home again. Our dog Lulu - the cattle dog/pointer mix who believes she is in charge of all creature and humans - spent the whole next day in his space with him, as if making sure no one was going to take him again. Frankly, all the animals seem more settled now that big brother Boo is home. And I know our hearts are rejoicing.

He got his required nose ring, thanks to the vet at Green Mountain Bovine, as you can see in this picture. While that is still healing, it does not seem to bother him. And I tell him it makes him extra handsome of course.

We are extremely grateful to everyone for your contribuations, you are the ones who helped fund the materials to build the fence, who helped us pay all the fines, and really made this possible. We had no idea how we could manage all of that, and you all made it possible.

I would hug you all if I could reach over the Internet to do so.

Wren

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Sunny Bubalus Boogaloo Harbinger, “Boo,” is a Riverine Water Buffalo who is part of the Wren's Grove Natural History Research Center's community of animals and birds here in Windham Vermont. Wren’s Grove is the oldest farm in Windham. His particular genes are from the Italian Alps, via the now defunct Woodstock Water Buffalo dairy, the first of its kind anywhere in the USA. Boo was born in the spring of 2019. He made the road trip up from his birthplace of Salisbury, NC, in the back of a Honda CRV driven by one of the Grove’s high school apprentices from Leland & Grey. He was just a few weeks old, and about the size of a Great Dane. Since then, Wren’s Grove has been the only home he has ever known.

Wildlife conservation scientists recommend the use of Water Buffalo to manage uncontrolled vegetative growth in and around natural wetlands, to help control invasive aquatic vegetation, which clog water bodies, leading to stagnation and infestation of mosquitoes, midges, gnats and leeches. They are useful for conservation grazing and clearing stagnated wetlands, creating more healthful habitats for waterfowl and other native wildlife. Water Buffalo are much better adapted to wet conditions and poor quality vegetation than cattle.They have been used widely in the Alps and throughout Europe to glean orchards of wind fallen fruits and help transform marshland to pasture since 600 AD.

Over the last 5 years Boo has cleared four stagnated ponds by grazing on aquatic vegetation beneath the surface of the water. Mosquito and leech populations have decreased exponentially. His browsing on fallen fruit has also resulted in the return of more bountiful harvests on those same trees, which were suffering from decades of apple beetle infestation. His browsing on young alders and other advantageous swamp vegetation has helped to create and maintain lush patches of pasture --without a lawnmower or artificial fertilizers.

Most Water Buffalo are kept on small family farms and live in close association with their people. Often thought of as “living tractors,” they are typically a small farm’s greatest capital asset. Throughout Southeast Asia, India and Egypt, Water Buffalo are commonly tended by children who can often be seen leading or riding their charges to their foraging grounds. The milk of Water Buffalo is much higher in fat and protein than cow’s milk making it ideal for specialized dairy products. Ricotta, mozzarella, mascarpone and rahss are traditionally made strictly from Riverine water buffalo milk.

Like other bovines, Boo sometimes escapes from one of his enclosures or off his tether when he is grazing or being worked. He is boldly inquisitive and the smell of windfallen apples going to waste along the roads attracts him. He is a pushy teenager and will take off to forage on fruit or graze on luscious grass - regardless of what his handler may request of him.

Observing this with no little disdain, some perhaps less than well-intentioned community members - who have moved to Windham from the suburbs of other states, have used our selectboard as their personal HOA. Through this process the transplants had Boo declared a “nuisance animal.” He was recently seized by Animal Control accompanied by two state troopers and a sheriff. The stress of being forcibly removed from the only home he has ever known will negatively impact his training. His weekly conditioning is critical in his development. He is a draft animal - not a pet. Each day that he is away from Wren’s Grove Natural History Research Center his vulnerability to harm increases and the fines for his forced confinement accrue.

Although not as famous as his movie star brother, Wilson (featured in the Black Panther movie franchise), Boo is much loved by most of our community. People from all over come to see Boo. He is a gentle, immense beast, curious and friendly. The folks of the 7th Day Adventist Church in Townshend save their banana peels for him. Before the suburbanites colluded to close our 200-year-old Windham Elementary School, Boo was regularly visited by young children, the sort of attention he much adores.

In order to bring him home we are obliged to either pay attorneys to fight the situation in court, dragging out the situation and incurring additional costs, or amend our fencing; have a nose ring inserted, pay the current fines and other fees, including boarding at the facility where he is currently confined, which continue to accrue on a daily basis. We are also obliged to pay for his shipping.

Please help Wren’s Grove Natural History Research Center raise the needed funds to free Boo from jail and return him safely home as quickly as possible!