Thousand pound 'house-trained' bison moves to larger property in Texas

The bison has 'never gone to the bathroom' in the house

Karen Shoeve/Facebook

A domesticated Texas bison is getting used to her new home after a weeks-long search. She had gotten too big for her house, and accustomed to a certain lifestyle that afforded her the luxury of being an indoor-outdoor mammal.

Karen Schoeve decided to sell her 7-year-old bison cow, Bullet, who she says is completely house-broken. But Ms Schoeve works a full-time job, and doesn’t have the bandwidth to care for all of her livestock on her three-acre property in Argyle, Texas - a town just north of Dallas.

“I’m working and feeding animals and working and feeding animals. It’s just been hard for me to keep up,” Ms Schoeve told the Dallas Morning-News. “The best thing for me is to get everybody a good home, especially Bullet, because she deserves the best.”

So she put up a listing on Craigslist, ““TAME/HOUSEBROKEN BUFFALO COW,” for $5,950 (£4,134).

Ms Schoeve sold Bullet to a farm 15 miles away, after entertaining offers of up to $10,000 for the animal. But it was important that the bison found the right home where she would get the right amount of human interaction.

“I just think she deserves better - better space, bigger grassland,” she told a local ABC affiliate. “I just think it's best for her.”

The 1,100-pound bison had grown accustomed to moving about the house as she pleased. She seemed to enjoy staring at the fish tank, and was not phased by barks from Ms Schoeve’s terrier.

“She watches the fish tank for a while. She doesn't mess up a thing, and walks around very neatly like she belongs in the house,” Ms Schoeve said. “She has never gone to the bathroom [in the house], either.”

Another bison received global attention after tourists visiting Yellowstone National Park saw the calf in snowy weather and loaded it into their vehicle. Park rangers ticketed the tourists and forced them to put the calf back where they found it, given the dangers of approaching wildlife in the park.

Unfortunately, rangers could not reintroduce the calf to its herd and reportedly had to euthanised it, the National Park Service announced on Monday.

The NPS also warned against interacting with bison.

“In terms of human safety, this was a dangerous activity because adult animals are very protective of their young and will act aggressively to defend them,” they said.

They previously said to beware of bison because the animal “can run three times faster than humans can sprint and are unpredictable and dangerous”.

But Bullet was anything but unpredictable and dangerous, according to Ms Schoeve.

“That’s why people shouldn’t mess with buffaloes, but Bullet’s a dog,” she said. “She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.”

Bullet went to her new home on Saturday, after living with Ms Schoeve for five years.