Wyoming

Why Airlifting Cows By Helicopter Not Practical For Wyoming Ranchers

Published

2 years ago

March 12, 2024

Why Airlifting Cows By Helicopter Not Practical For Wyoming Ranchers

When Wyoming ranchers need to get medical treatment for hurt cattle, a vet may come to the ranch and treat the animal on-site, or if that’s not possible, a cow could be loaded onto a trailer to get to the nearest clinic.

In Switzerland, injured cattle fly the friendly skies.

Because of the rugged landscape and general inaccessibility to where the cattle are, getting cows to vets takes a little extra effort. A video posted last week to the Nature is Amazing X feed (formerly Twitter) shows how that happens with a cow being evacuated from mountainous terrain dangling from a harness attached to a helicopter.

The scene looks like a “Jurassic Park” training video on how to feed a T. rex. While it’s certainly an attention-grabbing thing to see and might be practical in the neutral European nation, the sky is not the limit for Wyoming ranchers with sick or injured cattle.

Udderly Unnecessary

Jim Magagna, executive vice president for the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said aerial vehicles like helicopters and drones are potent tools for Wyoming ranchers to perform a host of tasks. But, airlifting livestock, as shown in the video, isn’t one of them.

“I don’t see how it would be practical,” he said of air ambulances for Cowboy State Cows. “Where would it ever happen? It’s technically doable, but I don’t foresee any real circumstances where it’s likely to be used in Wyoming.”

Topography might have something to do with it. The state of Wyoming is more than six times larger than Switzerland, but several mountain ranges densely cover the European nation.

In such mountainous terrain, the most effective way to move a cow, horse or other livestock might be by hitching it in a harness and sending it skyward. Magagna could only see one scenario where a Wyoming rancher might moo-ve an animal via a helicopter harness.

“If it’s a highly valuable animal, it’s feasible,” he said. “Perhaps a prize bull or something that was lost or needed to be transported quickly for veterinary care. It wouldn’t happen for routine livestock.”

There are a few Kobe beef ranches in Wyoming, and Kobe cows can be worth as much as $30,000 each.

Another potential scenario is if a bull or cow gets itself trapped or stuck in an inaccessible spot while grazing.

Cowboy Country

Maybe flying cattle with a ticket in bare-basic economy is worth the expense in Switzerland. In Wyoming, better solutions are built into the state’s cultural identity.

Magagna likes a conventional approach. If any livestock wander into a rugged area where aerial evacuation could be an option, there’s no reason why a Wyoming cowboy couldn’t get there, too. That’s because the theory that if a cow can get there, it can get out is usually true.

“If the livestock are still mobile, getting up there by horseback and bringing them down is the most normal method,” he said.

The simplest answers might not always be the best or most exciting, but they are often the most economical. Perhaps the Swiss enjoy using as many extravagant tools as possible, which might explain the Swiss Army knife.

But what if an animal was hurt and couldn’t be led out? Apparently, the cow being carried in the helicopter harness in the viral video was injured, a somewhat common occurrence in Switzerland, explaining the evacuation.

Magagna conceded that an injured animal in an inaccessible place might force a rancher to make a tough decision, but they’ve been making those decisions as long as humans have been ranching.

“If an individual animal was injured and wasn’t able to travel on its own,” he said, “I think it would come down to a decision of weighing the value of that animal versus the cost that would be involved in an aerial transport.”

Humanely euthanizing an injured animal might not be the neutral solution preferred by Switzerland, but Wyomingites are pragmatic by nature. That approach is why Magagna believes Wyoming’s ranchers will avoid high-flying ideas for tried-and-true, grounded solutions.

“Even if the livestock owner had their own helicopter that was used to do it, I don’t see it in most cases being feasible,” he said. “I’m not saying it couldn’t be, but I don’t see how it would be practical.”

Screenshot of airlifted cow ((YouTube))
Screenshot of airlifted cow ((YouTube))
This still image from a video posted to X by Nature is Amazing shows a cow dangling from a helicopter in Switzerland. (@AMAZINGNATURE via X)

Flying Deer

Helicopter transport might be too “pie in the sky” for Wyoming ranchers, but flying hoof stock can still be spotted in Cowboy State skies. Because while aerial transport isn’t practical for ranching, it is for wildlife management.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department occasionally uses helicopters to relocate wildlife. For instance, capturing and moving mule deer allows researchers to check it for disease, take biological samples and outfit it with radio collars for movement and migration studies.

In those scenarios, helicopters are operated by flight and capture crews from private contractors rather than Wyoming Game and Fish personnel. Many contractors come from New Zealand, where, like in Switzerland, moving and managing livestock with helicopters is more common.

“Most of those guys are Kiwis,” Shawn Blajszczak, the Wyoming regional director of the Mule Deer Foundation, told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s extremely dangerous work.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at: ARossi@CowboyStateDaily.com

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Wyoming

How Wyoming Game Wardens Cracked The Cody Serial Poaching Case

Published

8 hours ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

How Wyoming Game Wardens Cracked The Cody Serial Poaching Case

For four straight nights, Game Warden Spencer Carstens and a fellow officer sat in an unmarked vehicle at a Cody city park, windows down, staring into the blackness from dusk until 3 a.m.

Nothing happened.

The poaching caper that would become known internally as the “Cody Park Case” had been building since late August 2024, when residents began finding mule deer carcasses in their front yards and floating in a pond at the Park County Complex. The deer body count reached nine.

According to Wyoming Game and Fish, all nine were killed “right in the middle of town where deer like to hang out” by the library, not far from Canal Park and Glendale Park

All shot with a compound bow, all left to rot.

By the time wardens launched their stakeout, and the only lead was grainy security camera footage of a silver car cruising the neighborhood.

The full story of how the case came together is now the subject of an episode of the Wyoming Wildlife Podcast, hosted by Robert Gagliardi, the assistant editor of Wyoming Wildlife magazine. The podcast is a newer offering from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and this particular episode stood out for good reason.

“Our law enforcement stories, those are a fan favorite because they’re very exciting, they’re incredibly interesting, and they do a great job just highlighting just how much work goes into successfully investigating and closing a case like that,” Amanda Fry, public information officer for Wyoming Game and Fish, told Cowboy State Daily.

First Blood

In 2024, the first dead buck appeared in someone’s front yard near a city park, with a blood trail leading across the street and footprints disappearing into the grass. An arrow wound made the cause of death obvious.

“The first thing I kind of thought of was maybe it was a kid,” Carstens recalled for the podcast. A deer in a backyard, shot for fun — that was going to be the end of it.

But then, more reports came in the same day. A second buck, a couple of doors down, also arrowed.

Then a third, in a nearby park, where wardens recovered an arrow — an expandable broadhead fired from a compound bow, a typical hunting setup. Then deer four, five and six. Then number seven, found floating in a pond at the Park County Complex, requiring Carstens to wade out in chest waders to retrieve it.

All nine carcasses — two bucks, six does and a fawn — turned up within a tight radius around the county library and city park, right in the middle of town.

Every animal was shot and abandoned. None were harvested in any way.

“They were just killed and left,” Fry confirmed.

Silver Car

Being in city limits gave wardens tools they rarely get to use. Ring doorbell cameras from cooperative neighbors produced footage of activity on the nights deer were killed. Security cameras at a local business captured a silver car driving slowly up and down the street before parking, and a figure stepping out with a flashlight.

It was the first real break, but the footage was too grainy to identify a make and model, let alone a license plate.

“And of course, it’s one of those deals where there’s just silver cars everywhere you look, once you start looking for them,” Carstens said.

An early lead pointed to a group of teenagers spotted on Ring camera footage running around and riding in the back of a truck. Wardens tracked them down at a local school — only to learn they had been playing a supervised game that night, organized by Cody police. They were ruled out.

With no suspect and deer still turning up dead, Carstens and his team decided to stake out the park. They would sit in the dark and wait.

Forensic evidence was gathered from arrows to catch a serial poacher in Cody (Courtesy: Wyoming Game and Fish)

Fifth Night

By the fifth night of the stakeout, the wardens were running on fumes.

“We’re kind of tired, kind of getting sick of it, trying to figure out what are we going to do next because this isn’t working,” Carstens recalled.

Then they heard it — the unmistakable thwack of a compound bow firing in the darkness, followed by the sound of an arrow hitting flesh.

Using night vision, the wardens looked out into the park. A man was standing there holding a bow, standing over a dead deer.

Carstens crept out of the truck and got as close as he could before making contact. The man bolted.

“I actually get in a foot pursuit with this guy,” Carstens said. “He was a young, pretty fast guy, so he got away from me.”

But the suspect had to have driven there. Wardens fanned out and found the silver car parked about a block away. Peering through the window, they saw an arrow lying on the front seat that matched the one recovered from an earlier crime scene.

And the car was full of fresh groceries.

“Basically went out to get groceries, on his way home decided to pull over and shoot a deer in the park,” Carstens said.

Blood Science

The suspect — later identified as Joshua Tamirat Wielhouwer — fled the state. But wardens had his vehicle and, soon, search warrants for the house where he had been staying. Inside, archery equipment was scattered through multiple rooms. A second vehicle yielded more gear, including a bow and broadheads.

Some of that equipment had blood on it. In some cases, only minuscule traces.

Wardens had also been collecting the deer carcasses and storing them in an evidence freezer. They sent tissue samples from eight of the nine deer to the Wyoming Game & Fish forensics lab, along with every piece of blood-stained archery equipment from the house.

What came back was, in Carstens’ word, “remarkable.”

The lab matched all eight deer to specific pieces of equipment — individual broadheads, arrows and metal inserts — through DNA analysis. Trace amounts of tissue inside a tiny metal arrow insert were enough to tie a specific deer to a specific arrow.

“This is the first case that I’ve worked where we’ve actually been able to take nothing but DNA evidence and make a full case on it,” Carstens said. “Big kudos to the forensics lab. They really helped put this case together. We wouldn’t have a case without them.”

A cell phone search warrant then connected the suspect’s archery equipment to an older case — a beef cow shot with multiple arrows and left to die the year before, a case the Park County Sheriff’s Office had been unable to solve.

Serial Poacher

With a nationwide extraditable warrant issued through the Park County prosecuting office, officers in another state began looking for the suspect. He eventually turned himself in, flew back to Cody and sat in jail for 75 days before posting bail.

A trial was set for February 2025. Before it began, prosecutors and the defense reached a plea deal: guilty on nine of the 18 misdemeanor charges, $18,000 in restitution for the deer and one full year in county jail, with 73 days credited for time served.

The suspect also pleaded guilty to felony destruction of property for the cow, paying restitution to the rancher and accepting three years of supervised probation. All seized archery equipment was forfeited. 

A year behind bars is an unusual outcome for a wildlife case in Wyoming, where penalties more commonly involve fines and revocation of hunting privileges, explained Carstens.

“This guy had never purchased a hunting license in Wyoming,” Carstens said. “He wasn’t really a traditional hunter in the sense that he buys a license, goes out in the field and looks to harvest anything.”

The warden’s best guess at a motive: the suspect was into archery as target shooting and “maybe just wanted to take it to the next level and see what he could do with his bow.”

Forensic evidence was gathered from arrows to catch a serial poacher in Cody — who was also connected to a mutilated cow. (Courtesy: Wyoming Game and Fish)

Team Effort

Carstens credited his fellow wardens and the Game and Fish investigative unit — which considered the dead cow as a possible predator conflict before determining it had been killed by a bow — and the Park County prosecutor’s office.

“This was definitely the most collaborative effort that I’ve been a part of,” Carstens said.

The community played a role too. Neighbors willingly shared security camera footage, and residents who enjoy the town’s urban mule deer herd were eager to see the case resolved.

“Our hope is to cover everything Game and Fish is doing,” Fry said of the Wyoming Wildlife Podcast. “We have terrestrial habitat work, aquatic habitat work, but our law enforcement stories — those are a fan favorite.”

David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.

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Wyoming

BLM and Wyoming Honor Farm to Offer Trained Wild Horses and Burros in May

Published

20 hours ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

BLM and Wyoming Honor Farm to Offer Trained Wild Horses and Burros in May

The Wyoming Department of Corrections Wyoming Honor Farm and the Bureau of Land Management have announced they will host an adoption on May 9 in Riverton.

According to a release, for more than 35 years, the Honor Farm has shared the BLM’s commitment to place animals removed from overpopulated herds into good, private homes.

The event will offer saddle-started horses, halter-started yearlings and gentled burros for adoption. Photos of many of the available animals can be seen by following BLM Wyoming on Facebook or X. The organizations are currently developing a Flickr album that will premier in the near future. The horses to be offered all originate from Wyoming public lands.

The Wyoming Honor Farm is located one mile north of Riverton. Take U.S. Highway 26 to Honor Farm Road.

On May 8, gates open at 12:30 p.m. Preview available horses and burros in-person starting at 1:30 p.m. All visitors must be offsite by 3:30 p.m.

On May 9, gates open at 8 a.m. and the competitive-bid adoption begins at 10 a.m.

Both days’ events are free and open to anyone interested in wild horses, the Honor Farm gentling process and the BLM wild horse and burro adoption program.

According to the BLM, it will provide applications and information about how to adopt on both days. The BLM reports the horses and burros are current on their vaccinations, de-worming and Coggins testing. Only covered straight deck or stock type trailers with swing gate and sturdy walls and floors are authorized for loading.

The Wyoming Department of Corrections reports that since 1988, the Honor Farm has helped the BLM place thousands of horses and burros. The WDC has a low recidivism rate, and leadership feels this is largely due to the meaningful work accomplished by the Honor Farm inmates, including the gentling of wild horses. Inmates who are released after working in this program have a greater chance of succeeding in the outside world, according to the WDC.

Refreshments will be available during the event. Ice cream sandwiches will be provided on Friday, May 8. On Saturday, May 9, breakfast and lunch will be available free of charge for attendees.

All members of the public entering the facility will be subject to security checks conducted by GSecurity, including vehicle inspections. For the safety of visitors, staff, and animals – pets, firearms, and alcohol are not allowed on site.

The BLM wishes the public to be aware that cell phones, smart watches, cameras, video equipment and tobacco products must be kept locked in your vehicle while onsite. To maintain a positive environment for visitors, a reasonable clothing standard must be adhered to. Shorts and form-fitting clothing are prohibited.

To learn more about the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, including adoption requirements, visit blm.gov/whb or contact the national information center at 866-468-7826 or wildhorse@blm.gov.

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