Mon Oct 1, 11:44 AM ET

Shon Rainford, the vice president of operations at Middleton Place, holds a young water buffalo named 'Adem' with a tether Aug. 8, 2007, at Middleton Plantation near Charleston, S.C. The plantation recently acquired two young water buffalo for it's stable yards. Middleton was the first place in the United States to use water buffalo to work the rice fields before the Civil War. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith)

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