Phill the water buffalo is out of the hospital and settling into life at his new home, the Iowa Farm Sanctuary (IFS), Shawn Camp announced in a video posted to the sanctuary’s Instagram page on Thursday.
Camp, who founded and runs IFS with her husband Jared, said they picked up Phill yesterday and brought him back to the 40-acre sanctuary in Oxford.
Phill had been recovering at Iowa State University’s Large Animal Hospital, where he had surgery to remove shotgun pellets from his abdomen. The domesticated water buffalo escaped a fenced enclosure in the Des Moines suburb of Pleasant Hill in late August. His five-day-long run for freedom captured national attention, and got the fugitive ruminant his name as online well-wishers shortened Pleasant Hill into Phill. Unfortunately, a brief encounter with the police on Aug. 24 resulted in him being shot by an officer who thought Phill seemed like a threat. The wound was relatively minor, and after being shot, Phill successfully evaded the police, remaining at large for a few more days.
When the wandering water buffalo was finally cornered by police again, an expert from ISU tranquilized him.
Phill wasn’t alone in that fenced yard in Pleasant Hill. There were two other water buffalo. The owner had bought the buffalo from a breeder in Kansas a few weeks earlier, intending to butcher them for their meat. There were originally four buffalo brought to Iowa from Kansas, but by the time anyone knew they were in Pleasant Hill, the owner had already butchered one.
The Camps were able to persuade the owner to surrender not just Phill, but also the other two. In an update on Phill published last week, the Camps revealed that Phill’s pasture-mates, a female water buffalo and a male, were now at the sanctuary and had been named. The female is Jane, the male is Sal. Sal and Phill have a very close bond, as the video posted on Thursday shows.
Phill is standing in the trailer that brought him to IFS, unsure about the new setting. Then he hears something.
“Sal called out to Phill and told him everything was OK. Phill came running out when he realized who it was,” Camp explains as the video shows Phill rushing over to Sal.
The two start nuzzling each other.
“They hardly left each other’s sides all afternoon,” Camp said.
Jane hovers nearby, but doesn’t cuddle up as the other two do.
“It makes us heartbroken for Jane, wondering who she’s lost along the way,” Camp said.
All three remain in the medical wing at IFS, as they adjust to life in their home. Eventually they join the other bovine peacefully grazing at the sanctuary.
IFS has set up a Patreon account — the Moo Crew — for people who want to help support Phill, Sal and Jane. Other ways to support the work of the nonprofit sanctuary and help the other 150 animals who have found shelter and a new life at Iowa’s first vegan farm sanctuary can be found on the IFS site.
In October, IFS is hosting a special fundraiser, Carl’s 5K and Fall Fest, named in honor of a beloved member of the sanctuary’s bovine herd, who is now deceased.
“Carl’s 5K is unlike any race you’ve ever participated in before, as the course will again wind around our beautiful sanctuary grounds — our rescued residents cheering you on as you go,” according to the event description.
Carl’s 5K and Fall Fest is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 19. Online registration for it is already open.